Re: Creationism

I found the term in Paul A. Zimmerman, ed., /Darwin, Evolution, and
Creation/ (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959), pp. 28, 33. The
former indicates that the notion goes back to Richard B. Goldschmidt,
/The Material Basis of Evolution/ (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1940), p. 7, but does not ascribe the term to him. Since I do not find
the term in OED, the early edition, it must date to sometime after the
early '30s. The new edition will surely tell when it was introduced.
Dave

On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 14:48:03 -0700 "Terry M. Gray"
<grayt@lamar.colostate.edu> writes:
Michael,

I don't know the answer either, but in a quick scan I found the term in
my college general biology textbooks (two different ones--Biology,
Curtis, 2nd Edition, 1975; Life on Earth, Wilson et al., 2nd Edition,
1978).

The notion of "macroevolution" (species selection, etc) is part of the
punctuated equilibrium story. Steven Stanley's book with that title is
from the late 80's, early 90's. Of course, macroevolution in this sense
is in contrast with gradualism. Macroevolution now commonly refers to
common descent and all manner of evolution, whereas microevolution refers
to "change within species". See
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/glossary.html

Here's a note about the term "macroevolution"

Even among scientists, the term "macroevolution" is a vague concept. Many
authors think that there is a qualitative difference between adaptive
evolution and the origins of higher taxa or forms. In the original
formulation, Y'uri'i Filipchenko (in 1927) used the term to mean
origination of a novel species by splitting from an ancestral species —
what we now call speciation or cladogenesis. Today it is more widely used
to mean "large-scale" change, such as the evolution of novel
"body-plans", "grades" of ecological niche specialization, or "key
innovations".

from

http://www.ncseweb.org/resources/rncse_content/vol21/1610_defining_evolut
ion_12_30_1899.asp

TG

On Dec 23, 2005, at 8:36 AM, Robert Schneider wrote:

Michael, I don't know the answer to that question, but it is used in
standard textbooks on evolution, e.g., Peter Price, Biological Evolution,
1995. It would be interesting to know who coined the term.

Bob

----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Roberts"
<michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk>
To: "Roger G. Olson" <rogero@saintjoe.edu>; "Carol or John Burgeson"
<burgytwo@juno.com>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 2:33 AM
Subject: Re: Creationism

Who made up the term "microevolution?"

Michael
----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger G. Olson" <rogero@saintjoe.edu>
To: "Carol or John Burgeson" <burgytwo@juno.com>
Cc: <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2005 3:46 AM
Subject: Re: Creationism

Hi Burgy,

The antibiotic resistance of TB is clearly a product of "microevolution".
Every creationist knows that! So, even though this cartoon was a funny,
the creationist will view it (perhaps rightly so) as a strawman to
falsely
persecute the Truth(tm).

Roger

Here is a link to a funny cartoon on ID.

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20051218/ldb051218.gif

Burgy

-- 
________________
Terry M. Gray, Ph.D.
Computer Support Scientist
Chemistry Department
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
(o) 970-491-7003  (f) 970-491-1801