Re: [asa] The Charybdis of the Modern Synthesis

The term "Darwinian" is problematic in these contexts, too. The
recent PNAS paper suggesting that caterpillar-like larvae are a
product of hybridization between an onychophoran and an insect
identified that as non-Darwinian, but I don't think Darwin himself
said anything that would rule such out. What was meant was
"reticulate rather than following a strictly branching pattern". In
reality, I doubt that any evolutionary biologist would deny that there
is some reticulation, and there's much more recognition of it as a
widespread phenomenon now than a few years ago, as studies suggest
that there's more than had been generally recognized, with rampant
"hybridization" in prokaryotes. Nevertheless, the
onychophoran-caterpillar link is probably erroneous, as there are so
many fully arthropod features in caterpillars, as no one has noticed
evidence of a separate genome applying to the larvae in Drosophilia,
and as becoming wormlike is an extremely common convergence.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.