The Selfish Gene By Richard Dawkins Summary

Introduction When reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, many topics were brought up about genes and their role within organisms (Dawkins). Some of the topics included where genes may have originated (Dawkins 12), the idea that organisms are “gene machines” (Dawkins 46), and mutualism (Dawkins 166). However, the topic that Dawkins covered that I found to be the most interesting was the topic of child rearing (109). Many of the ideas the Dawkins mentions and interprets are very similar to how evolutionary biology discusses how and why animals regulate the number of offspring they produce (112). In addition, Dawkins covers the way animals control their birth-rates within a population for selfish reasons (117). Moreover, Dawkins deliberates how only certain males, in the hierarchy of populations, mate with the females (114).

I believe that Dawkins was correct that mothers have certain clutch to maximize the amount of viable offspring they can have (117). Reproducing takes time and energy and many factors can impact the mother and the development of that offspring (Dawkins 116,117) (Paul et al. 2010). Evidence has shown that pushing litter size boundaries can lead to a mother lacking the ability to properly care for the all the offspring effectively (Baxter et al. 2013). Dawkins mentions that not having as many offspring as possible is against the “selfish gene” theory (116). Likewise, he talks about how more offspring will survive if slightly less offspring are produced so better care can be provided (116). Evidence from breeding studies support that there is a limit to the mother’s caring ability (Hamed et al. 2009) (Baxter et al. 2013), emphasizing that having more descendants does not necessarily mean that more descendants will be generated. And, therefore, more genes will be replicated as Dawkins