Hi Cameron (and anyone else reading),
I found an interesting paper/chapter on the internet:
http://www.pitt.edu/~jhs/articles/darwinism_vs_evo_devo.pdf
It's by Jeffrey Schwartz and it recounts the dispute between Darwin and his gradualism and Mivart and his saltationism (has Mivart ever been discussed on this list?)
A couple of points come to mind.
1. Did Darwin's embrace of blending inheritance cause him to embrace strict gradualism or did his embrace of strict gradualism lead him to endorse blending inheritance? I get the feeling it was the latter.
2. On page 71, Darwin is quoted as doubting whether a LOSS of an organ would ever be tolerated by natural selection. This is not the hopeful monster/747 argument for denying large change.
Just thinking out loud when I should be in bed,
Mike
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Received on Mon Apr 20 23:20:28 2009
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