Year: 2022

VESTIGIAL SELECTION REMNANT. “In a predator–prey example, snails from freshwater springs in northern Mexico develop shells that are 2–3 times harder than is necessary to withstand the maximum biting force of the local molluscivorous cichlid fish. Such defences have been attributed to environment-dependent fitness costs of defences and historical, but now absent, selection.” https://lnkd.in/e5R5vQe View in LinkedIn

VESTIGIAL EXPLANTATION. “We offer a simple explanation that only requires asymmetric selection and phenotypic variance, both of which are universal properties of natural systems.” https://lnkd.in/e5R5vQe View in LinkedIn

OVER-REACH. “Eco-evolutionary feedbacks between population abundances and asymmetric selection further exaggerate these defences.” https://lnkd.in/e5R5vQe View in LinkedIn

IST LINE IN THE SAND. “On 13 April 1896, H. F. Osborn gave a lecture at the meeting of the Section of Biology of the New York Academy of Sciences, titled ‘A mode of evolution requiring neither natural selection nor the inheritance of acquired characteristics’. According to the neo-Darwinian theory of evolution, such a mode is possible only as neutral evolution. Adaptive evolution has been explained in neo-Darwinism exclusively via the obligatory role of natural selection.” https://lnkd.in/eS_4y_J View in LinkedIn

NON SELECTIVE ADAPTION. “A mechanism of evolution that ensures adaptive changes without the obligatory role of natural selection is described. According to this mechanism, the first event is a plastic adaptive change (change of phenotype), followed by stochastic genetic change which makes the transformation irreversible.” https://lnkd.in/eS_4y_J View in LinkedIn

PLASTICITY AND SPECIATION. “By the plasticity hypothesis, divergence, in the form of alternative phenotypes, life-stage differences, and contrasting traits such as those expressed under extreme or novel conditions, arises first; then particular variants are fixed in particular subpopulations due to assortative mating, environmentally mediated change in expression, or selection. … Extreme plasticity such as learning can produce exceedingly rapid (abrupt) speciation.” https://lnkd.in/eS_4y_J View in LinkedIn

REVERSIBILITY. “Adaptation is a meaningful relation for a living system, which is defined independently from the process of evolution. An adaptation is evolutionary only if it is irreversible, as evolution is defined as an irreversible transformation.” https://lnkd.in/eS_4y_J View in LinkedIn

“ORGANIC PLASTICITY – the ability to solve unexpected problems, to accommodate one's behaviour during the lifetime, according to circumstances – is a universal feature of all living beings. This feature does not require an additional evolutionary explanation because it is as universal as life itself.” https://lnkd.in/eS_4y_J View in LinkedIn

ROAD OF ERRORS. “Organic plasticity (as different from transformations in non-living systems) should be understood as a change that has alternatives – it should be possible also to behave in the ways that do not meet the needs, it should be possible to make errors.” https://lnkd.in/eS_4y_J View in LinkedIn

SELECTION-FREE ADAPTION. “An adaptive evolutionary mechanism without natural selection can be described by the following sequence of events.” https://lnkd.in/eS_4y_J View in LinkedIn