  Several theorists (e.g., Clark 1996, Tomasello 1999, and Sterelny,  2003) have stressed that in addition to working on human linguistic  abilities directly, via changes to the parts of the genome coding for those abilities, natural selection can also bring about such changes  indirectly, by making sure that our minds are embedded in certain  kinds of environments. All sorts of animals create environments for  themselves: this is called ‘niche construction.’ (The  term is due to Odling-Smee, Laland and Feldman 1996.) Many animals  also (or thereby) create environments for their offspring as well.  And as Odling-Smee et al. 1996, Avital and Jablonka 2000, and  Sterelny 2003 stress, animals' dispositions to modify the  environments of both themselves and their offspring in certain ways  are just as much potential objects of selection as are other of their traits.