From: Robert Schneider (rjschn39@bellsouth.net)
Date: Fri Sep 26 2003 - 11:54:52 EDT
Jim writes:
> Generally, when we describe someone as a "Darwinian," we are saying that
> they believe that gradualism and selection are the important features in
an
> evolutionary process. It seems that ecologists tend to be hard-core
> Darwinian.
>
> Non-Darwinian biologists view drift, founder effects, macromutations
(those
> with multiple effects) and similar processes as the important mechanisms
in
> an evolutionary pathway. S.J. Gould popularized this in the punctuated
> equilibrium model.
>
> Jim Behnke james.behnke@asbury.edu
> Asbury College
> Wilmore, KY 40390 859-858-3511 x 2232
>
Thanks, Jim. I'm grateful for this statement. But a query. Do not such
phenomena as gene flow, genetic drift, founder effect, etc., still depend in
some way on selection, as in the establishment of a new population in a new
environment (e.g., migration to an island), even though the rate of
evolutionary change may be much more than gradual? Help me out in
understanding and clarifying this point.
Thanks,
Bob Schneider
(Berea College ex-patriate now in Boone, NC)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Sep 26 2003 - 11:59:07 EDT