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[Phys-L] Re: Another attack on Evolution



At 12:09 AM 1/22/2006, Hugh Haskell, you wrote:
///
... let's look at how evolution proceeds. There are
*only* changes within a species, since no parent ever gives birth to
something which is a new species. *Every* offspring looks largely
like its parents, even like its grandparents.

////

However, we can be
sure that we will never see an offspring of a different species than
its parents. The process of an emerging new species is slow and
gradual, and although we may be able to assert that the offspring in
the 1000th or 10,000th generation constitute a new species, we can
never pin down the exact location of that boundary, and in fact there
is *no* location for that boundary, since no parent ever gives birth
to a new taxon at any taxonomic level.

//

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell


To my mind, this note constitutes an instance of a physicist
offering his views on evolutionary biology.
For a counter view to Hugh's gradualism as opposed to
saltation which Gould espoused, I will offer this,
on rather more secure grounds:
it is only necessary that an offspring can mate with others
of a sexually reproducing form. There is no requirement
for any other feature (phenotype) to be maintained.

The implication is that some transcription error,
some structurally new conformation can take place in just
one generation in highly visible form: perhaps two pairs
of wings in lieu of one pair, etc., etc.
This may be rare but should not be excluded.


Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!
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