The value of the new-born calf in evolutionary studies

Abstract

Living organisms possess, as attributes, many and differing patterned, structural and behavioural systems. These systems are not self-sufficient and must be complemented by items from outside themselves in order that success in completion of life-history is achieved. Potentially complementing items are many and multifarious so the incipient species has, as it were, a wide choice. As examples of successful complementing, the alimentary system is complemented by food and water, the respiratory system is complemented by free oxygen, the locomotor system of land animals by the solid-earth surface, of aquatic animals by water and of aerial animals by the atmosphere. In the new-born calf we have a highly developed animal, which is transferred suddenly from an intrauterine environment to a free one. Its first action is to complement its respiratory system by breathing air. Its innate postural changes in reaching the standing posture from the recumbent are complemented by the earth’s firm surface, as is also the innate urination posture adopted by the calf on the occasion of its first urinating postnatally. By being innately attracted to a large moving object and showing thigmotaxic responses towards that object, it eventually finds the site of its dam’s udder and thereby a source of food which complements its alimentary system. Also, play and curiosity are complemented by items in the environment. In addition to these behavioural patterns are structural patterns, shown by the reticulum and the omasum, both of which are present in the new-born calf and thus present before being complemented. The above attributes and their complements are common to all calves, and so are specific and primary; variations are shown to be secondary. Darwin’s theory of natural selection of indefinite variations and the present-day synthetic theory, based on selection of genes, omit consideration of specific characters and their complements and so are grossly defective. THE QUESTION OF ANIMAL AWARENESS