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<On the surface of things, what surprises me in an evolution scenario
<is that most species are not more highly developed fighting machines
<than they appear to be. Why would the development of a good brain in
<humans make some good fangs and claws less useful?
We need to remember that natural selection is searching for optima in
multidimensional space and there may be local optima that are not as
good as the overall optimum. Put more simply, it is looking for the
best balance of several traits and some limiting initial gene
frequencies may make it difficult to find the best possible balance
until new genetic material is introduced (either through mutation or
migration) or until genetic drift moves gene frequencies to a place
where an approach to a different optimum balance can be made.
The goal of natural selection is not just to make more highly
developed fighting machines. Rather selection pressure is applied to
improve defense, flight from predators, ability to find food,
adaptability to harsh conditions, optimum reproductive performance and
numerous other traits that have to do with survival of individuals and
groups of individuals. For example some loss of "fighting abililty"
may be accepted in the selection process in order to be able to flee
from predators that are too strong to fight against. It is not that
the fangs and claws themselves are less useful, but other attributes,
that are more useful, may be genetically antagonist to fangs and
claws.
Dave