The multiple directions of evolutionary change

✍ Scribed by Diego Rasskin-Gutman; Borja Esteve-Altava

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 215 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0265-9247
• DOI: 10.1002/bies.20766

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The theory of Punctuated Equilibria challenges the neo‐Darwinian tenet that evolution is a uniform process. Recently, an article by Hunt1 has found that directional change during the evolution of a lineage is relatively small (occurring only in 5% of 250 analyzed traits). Of those traits that were shown to follow a trend, size was more likely to show gradual changes, whereas shape changes were more random. Here, we provide a short view of the nature of evolutionary trends, showing that directional change within lineages and among clades provides valuable evolutionary information about the processes involved in their generation. BioEssays 30:521–525, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.