The Taltos and the Theory of Evolution

Introduction - Evolution and Natural Selection

Evolution has no moral guideposts.  It is neither good nor bad.  However, there is quite a bit of debate about evolution as an acceptable explanation of how life continues, and much of it is based upon the assumption of what evolution ought to be. 

A famous example of natural selection is the moths in England that, in order to escape being picked off by predators, had to carry alleles that expressed a trait for darker body and wing color so as to camoflage themselves within the layers of soot from the industrial plants.  Those moths who did not express this trait were easily spotted by predators as they still expressed for their lighter coloring.  As emissions from the plants were reduced, the level of soot coating on the external environment was also reduced, removing the need for darker coloring.  Those moths who carried alleles for the lighter color and passed it along to their offspring passed on the ability to express the trait and so those who were of lighter coloring were able to survive in the cleaner environment.  The darker moths were then the ones easily spotted by predators. 

Evolution and the Genes of the Taltos

This seems to be the theory that Anne Rice has based the Taltos upon and how the Mayfair Witches can carry a full set of chromosomes that are visible on their individual karyotypes which are not activated unless they are exposed to conditions that would activate them. 

Reproduction Between Taltos and Humans

This is not ignored where cross-species reproduction between humans and Taltos is concerned.  A human with only 46 chromosomes on the DNA strand is incapable of producing a Taltos because the chromosomal pairing at conception is incompatible.  Also, because the Taltos species has a greatly accelerated pregnancy during which distinct adult features are present in utero, making a Taltos far more independent than a human infant, and because of the enormous demand upon the mother for nutrients and resources during gestation, a human mother with an incompatible genetic blueprint is unable to support reproduction of a Taltos, resulting in her body expelling the fetus and causing violent contractions and uterine hemorrhaging, a demand upon a human mother that is most often fatal.  In short, she is unable to produce an offspring that can survive to reproduce, and her resources to support its gestation are far too limited. 

However, human mothers who do have the extra set of chromosomes compatible with the Taltos, such as Rowan and Mona Mayfair, are capable of producing Taltos offspring that survive, but the cost to the human mother is enormous.  Both Rowan and Mona, whose resources have been dangerously depleted by their respective pregnancies, deteriorate considerably.  Rowan must undergo a full hysterectomy or die of uterine hemorrhaging and is still comatose and unlikely to survive - until Emaleth arrives with her breasts full of milk. 

The Necessity of Breast Milk for Taltos to Survive

The Taltos milk is full of far more nutrients than human breast milk, which is necessary for a Taltos to reach its full height and development so rapidly.  Without it, the Taltos will not survive far past infancy.  It is this infusion of nutrients that restores Rowan to health.  Unfortunately, Mona is not so fortunate, and as a result of her pregnancy (her uterus was left intact after the birth), her fertility multiplied as her fecundity rapidly diminished.  Even after she stopped having sex with so many cousins (the "selective pressure" that triggered such rampant ovulation), the damage had been done, and she wasted away until she was nearly dead by the time she arrived at Blackwood Farm.

It should be noted that while Taltos pregnancies in human mothers are almost always fatal (Rowan and ancestors at Fontevrault, whom Dolly Jean Mayfair says referred to their monstrous offspring as "Walking Babies" are the notable exceptions), Taltos females who conceive by human fathers do not bear viable Taltos offspring, if they bear at all.  Emaleth conceived by the man in the tavern and while she lost the pregnancy, she was able to express breast milk.  The Taltos of the Glen of Donnelaith, whose females were mated with by human males to rapidly produce warriors, ended up producing what became the Little People, who in turn were capable of producing Taltos - with another Taltos.

Mutations and the Taltos

As Dr. Mitch Flanagan told Dr. Samuel Larkin, the offspring Rowan produced, Lasher, is not even a mutation.  It is possible that humans and Taltos shared a common ancestor as humans and chimps do, but the result is that the Taltos had its own evolution over time.  Since the Taltos have skeletons formed out of something like cartilage, it is no surprise that no evidence exists of their origins in the fossil record.  Mutations, as a general rule, are often the result of deleterious genes expressing and do not express traits that enable the individual to really survive to reproduce. 

The Taltos and the Ancestry of the Mayfair Witches

In the case of the Mayfair Witches and the inherited giant helix, it is known that it was most likely in the Mayfair genetic blueprint as far back as Deborah and Suzanne.  Suzanne may or may not have had the giant helix herself but it is clear that the man with whom she had her daughter Deborah, the Earl of Donnelaith, did.  This is established when Lasher tells his tale of having been born to "the witch Boleyn" and Douglas of Donnelaith. 

Conclusion on Links Between Taltos and the Mayfair Witches

Given that Douglas of Donnelaith was also an ancestor of Deborah Mayfair, it is most likely that there were Taltos ancestors in the family tree of the Earls of Donnelaith.  How could this have happened?  How is it that the Taltos genes got into the DNA of humans later on?  Is it possible that a human mother and a Taltos male somehow produced offspring that were more human than Taltos?  Perhaps the sexes were switched and the Taltos mother somehow produced a human male who happened to have the extra set of chromosomes?  Given the variation between offsprings, any of these would have been a likely scenario. 

The Survival of the Fittest Myth

NOT Survival of the Fittest

"Survival of the Fittest" is not a term coined by Charles Darwin.  It is Spencerian, a sort of bastardized form of Darwinism that claimed, foolishly, that those who were of high society and wealth were so because of superior genetics.  The poor and middle-classes were beneath them "genetically" and, they claimed, therefore unable to rise to the upper classes because they were genetically inferior.  Evolutionists who are engaged in academic and scientific research roundly reject this phrase.

13 June 2008