Re: Peppered Moths and Evolution

Cliff Lundberg (cliff@noevalley.com)
Wed, 11 Nov 1998 10:17:35 -0800

Arthur V. Chadwick wrote:

> It now appears certain that the Peppered Moth story, that
> venerated textbook example of evolution in action is finally
> going to have to be revised or thrown out of biology textbooks.

As an evolutionist, I always felt this item was an
embarassment, as (assuming it's true at all) it's not an
example of evolution, only of selection. When the selection
for the feature is terminated, the species reverts to the
normal proportion of alleles. Irreversibility is a criterion
of evolution. No evolution here.

-- Cliff Lundberg ~ San Francisco ~ cliff@noevalley.com