natural selection and orthogenesis
John R. Grehan
jrg13 at psu.edu
Thu Jan 10 09:47:14 EST 2002
>
>Anyway his explanation of evolution is that an omnipresent creator set the
>evolutionary wheels in motion and let natural selection do the rest (without
>divine oversight).
>
>Mike Gochfeld
Or maybe natural selection did not do the "rest". Orthogenetic models of
evolution have
been around since the late 1800's and have found expression in molecular
modes of
evolution such as molecular drive. These models suggest a dynamic
coevolutionary relationship between natural selection and biologically
driven changes in both the origin of new mutations and changes in gene
frequencies. In other words - organisms are not passive biological entities
that are essentially evolutionary blobs until an external force (natural
selection) comes into play (a rather Newtonian view of the biological
universe).
John Grehan
John Grehan
Frost Entomological Museum
Pennsylvania State University
Department of Entomology
501 ASI Building
University Park, PA 16802. USA.
Phone: (814) 863-2865
Fax: (814) 865-3048
Frost Museum
http://www.ento.psu.edu/home/Frost/index.html
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