Tag: Adaptive Radiation
Butterfly Wing Pattern Diversification by Non-Darwinian Mechanisms
In butterfly “evolution,” new findings show mechanisms at work other than random mutation and natural selection.
Finch Varieties in New Guinea Undercut Iconic Galápagos Finch Story
Finches on another island “would leave even Charles Darwin scratching his head.” But do they “help solve an evolutionary puzzle”?
Darwin’s Finches: An Icon Gets Retouched
What can bacteria collected around a university campus tell us about adaptive radiation?
Science Paper Admits Evolution Mechanism of “Adaptive Radiation” Lacks Empirical Evidence
A recent article in Science titled “Adaptive Radiation: Contrasting Theory with Data” admits that the evidence documenting the precise workings of a key macroevolutionary mechanism — “adaptive radiation” — is missing. The article concedes that “how exactly radiation occurs, and how it differs among taxa and in different settings, as well as why some lineages radiate and others do not, are still unclear.” When studying evolutionary biology in college, I learned that new types of organisms have commonly appeared abruptly in the history of life. Since Darwinian evolution is supposed to proceed by “numerous, successive, slight modifications,” this data made little sense in the light of evolution. Our professors always reassured us that rapid evolution or abrupt appearance of major Read More ›