V. C. Wynne-Edwards

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Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards
Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards
Born	4 July 1906
Died	January 5, 1997
Nationality	British
Fields	zoology
Known for	group selection

Vero Copner Wynne-Edwards (4 July 1906 — January 5, 1997) was a British zoologist best known for espousing group selection, most notably in his 1962 book, Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior. In it, he argued that many behaviors are adaptations of the group, rather than adaptations of the individual, and that populations have adaptive self regulatory mechanisms. His arguments were vigorously criticised by George C. Williams in his Adaptation and Natural Selection, as well as by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene.

His son Hugh Wynne-Edwards is a professor of geology, and his granddaughter Kathy Wynne-Edwards a professor of biology.

[edit] Book

• Wynne-Edwards, V.C. 1962. Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior. Oliver & Boyd, London.

[edit] References

• Borrello, Mark E (2005), “The rise, fall and resurrection of group selection.”, Endeavour 29 (1): 43-7, 2005 Mar, PMID:15749153, doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2004.11.003, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15749153> 
• Borrello, Mark E (2004), “"Mutual aid" and "animal dispersion": an historical analysis of alternatives to Darwin.”, Perspect. Biol. Med. 47 (1): 15-31, 2004, PMID:15061166, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15061166> 
• Williams, G.C. 1966. Adaptation and Natural Selection. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
• Williams, G.C. (Ed.) 1971 Group Selection. Aldine·Atherton, Chicago, IL.

[edit] External links

• http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Auk/v116n03/p0815-p0816.pdf
• http://people.bu.edu/cschneid/BI504/PowerPoint/Week5_2.pdf
• Vero Wynne-Edwards fonds at Queen's University Archives