From: Walter Hicks (wallyshoes@mindspring.com)
Date: Wed Aug 13 2003 - 11:18:24 EDT
I agree that all of these (and ones offered by Terry) affect evolution, but I don't see most of them as alternatives to natural selection. For the most part they introduce variation and then natural selection filters out the ones that are not useful for survival. Catastrophic changes are an exception and certainly would represent a non-"Darwinian" effect.
In reading some of the material by Gould, it seems as though many times the transition to a new species is rather abrupt. I often wondered if these may have happened at major climatic changes. A recent issue of Physics Today states that abrupt environmental changes are now accepted as more frequent than previously suspected.
Walt
bivalve wrote:
> >Can you just recite one or more _scientific_ alternatives to natural selection.<
>
> Other factors that are believed to influence evolution, besides natural selection, include genetic drift (the effects of random genetic envents), catastrophic selection (e.g., asteroid impact), sexual selection, physical constraints, historical factors (e.g., who got there first), genetic linkages (e.g., strong jaws and weak backs in bulldogs and pandas), and exaptation (the use of something that initially evolved for another purpose). The relative role of each of these, along with natural selection, is debated; it certainly varies a good deal between situations.
>
> The metaphysical misrepresentation of Darwin is not due entirely to Christian circles. Ruse puts much of the blame on Huxley, despite being philosophically sympathetic to Huxley's agenda.
>
> Dr. David Campbell
> Old Seashells
> University of Alabama
> Biodiversity & Systematics
> Dept. Biological Sciences
> Box 870345
> Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
> bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
>
> That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
>
-- =================================== Walt Hicks <wallyshoes@mindspring.com>In any consistent theory, there must exist true but not provable statements. (Godel's Theorem)
You can only find the truth with logic If you have already found the truth without it. (G.K. Chesterton) ===================================
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