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‘Evolution’ Reconsidered| old_uid | 10885 |
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| title | ‘Evolution’ Reconsidered |
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| start_date | 2016/05/19 |
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| schedule | 15h-16h30 |
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| online | no |
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| summary | The following are mutually inconsistent: (A) Evolution is the result of evolutionary processes acting on evolutionary systems over evolutionary time; and (B) Evolution is change in . The blank in B is usually filled in with ‘gene frequencies’, but whether one chooses to define evolution in those terms vs. phenotypic or developmental terms makes no difference to the point here. The incompatibility between A and B is based on defining evolution in terms of change. First I point out the incompatibility. The simplest example is strong stabilizing selection producing stasis, where stasis is hard to achieve and would not occur were it not for the presence of strong selection. Next I argue that from a theoretical point of view, it is much more important to preserve A than B. B not only serves no theoretical purpose, it positively misleads, for instance it forces us to say in the above mentioned case that evolution is not occurring, even though an evolutionary system is being tightly constrained by evolutionary processes... |
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| responsibles | Pontarotti, Dutreuil |
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