Cheers,
RLT:
P.S. Of course, Herr Dr. (Strangelove) Lerner answered the question in 25
words or less. That's his style. Seems he doesn't have time to mess with
us mortals while being so busy building the New World Order and all...
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McLarnen wrote,
>Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory claims that the most significant cause
of >evolution is the adaptation of populations of living organisms in
response to >environmental changes.
No, this is Darwinian not Neo-Darwinian theory.
>Much more common are chromosomal changes (deletion, duplication,
inversion >and translocation of chromosome parts). More common still are
"crossing-over" >events that occur during mitosis and meiosis.
"Crossing-over" is a term restricted the paired homologues during
meiosis.
>Natural selection is a higher-level neo-Darwinian mechanism.
No, again this is simply a Darwinian mechanism.
>Other high-level neo-Darwinian mechanisms are allopatric,
>parapatric and sympatric speciation, coevolution and extinction.
Yes! However, these are not mechanisms in the strict sense.
>Genetic drift is also arguably not a neo-Darwinian mechanism.
It is -- In fact Wright's work is a cornerstone of the modern
synthesis.
> This is best seen in the comparison between two
>non-interbreeding populations of the same species living in
>very similar environments. It will be noted, over time, that
>the populations will start to vary from each other, not in
>response to environmental imperatives, but simply as a
>result of the accumulation of different random mutations and
>chromosomal changes that, while they may affect appearance,
>do not significantly effect environmental fitness.
Genetic drift is indifferent with regard to adaptive
consequences. Allele fixation or extinction are stochastic functions.
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