(October 24, 2013 at 5:34 am)Zen Badger Wrote: Actually I can think of a very good reason for why women develop breasts .The problem with this idea is that to all other mammals, breasts are a sign of a nursing- and therefore reproductively less available- female. There is no reason why this wouldn't also have been true of our ancestors. Breasts have no sexual attraction to any other species. It is more reasonable to hypothesize that the attraction to breasts developed after the breasts themselves.
Sexual preference is a powerful mechanism in driving evolutionary development.(think of birds of paradise)
And there is no disputing that breasts are a powerful secondary sexual characteristic.
Therefore women that did grow breasts early were more likely to be selected by males and breed.
Therefore passing that gene to their daughters. After enough generations every female would have it.
People don't realise how much of an influence sexual selection has in evolution.
It's still an open question.