Re: [asa] Speciation

Yes, there is clearly a first organism to exhibit a particular mutation (in the broader sense of the changes that can occur from parent to first generation offspring, not just a single nucleotide) but seldom, (if ever?) is such a single event sufficient to define a new species, even in hindsight analysis. It still seems incorrect to speak of a "first member of a species". A new species almost always requires a rather significant set of accumulated mutations. Perhaps that is not true in the simplest of microbes.

Randy

Dave wrote:
I wasn't being specific enough. I hope this is slightly more clear (although it may not be any more correct?).

I was thinking of cases where there is an increase of complexity due to mutation.
That would be an organism exhibiting first expression.

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Received on Mon Oct 5 07:33:07 2009