Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:07:05.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Toward a Modern Revival of Darwin's Theory of Evolutionary Novelty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Mary Jane West-Eberhard
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Darwin proposed that evolutionary novelties are environmentally induced in organisms “constitutionally” sensitive to environmental change, with selection effective owing to the inheritance of constitutional responses. A molecular theory of inheritance, pangenesis, explained the cross-generational transmission of environmentally induced traits, as required for evolution by natural selection. The twentieth-century evolutionary synthesis featured mutation as the source of novelty, neglecting the role of environmental induction. But current knowledge of environmentally sensitive gene expression, combined with the idea of genetic accommodation of mutationally and environmentally induced change, supports a revival of Darwin's original theory that is consistent with modern molecular and population genetics.

Type
Evolutionary Innovation and Novelties
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 75 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2006 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Cristina Bicchieri and Jason Alexander , December 2008 , pp. 899 - 908
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

This essay is based on “Darwin's Argument and Controversy regarding the Causes of Evolutionary Innovation,” a paper presented at the annual symposium of the Philosophy of Science Association, Vancouver, BC, November 2006. I thank Jonathan Kaplan and Massimo Pigliucci for the invitation to participate in that symposium, “Evolutionary Innovation and Novelties,” and William G. Eberhard for helpful suggestions.

References

Baldwin, James M. (1896), “A New Factor in Evolution”, A New Factor in Evolution 30:441–451, 536–553.Google Scholar
Baldwin, James M. (1902), Development and Evolution. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Charlesworth, Brian, Lande, Russell, and Slatkin, Montgomery (1982), “A Neo-Darwinian Commentary on Macroevolution”, A Neo-Darwinian Commentary on Macroevolution 36:474–498.Google ScholarPubMed
Darwin, Charles ([1859] 1872), The Origin of Species. Facsimile of 6th ed. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles ([1868] 1972), The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. vol. 2. Reprint of 2nd ed. (New York: Appleton). New York: AMS Press.Google Scholar
Darwin, Charles (1882), “Prefatory Notice: Studies in the Theory of Descent”, in August Weismann, Studies in the Theory of Descent, with Notes and Additions by the Author. Translated by Raphael Meldola. Originally published as Studien zur Descendenz-Theorie (Leipzig: Engelmann). London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, v–vi.Google Scholar
Falconer, D. S., and Mackay, Trudy (1996), Introduction to Quantitative Genetics. 4th ed. Essex: Longman.Google Scholar
Fisher, Ronald A. (1930), The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. New York: Dover.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Brian K. (2005), “Consideration of the Neural Crest and Its Skeletal Derivatives in the Context of Novelty/Innovation”, Consideration of the Neural Crest and Its Skeletal Derivatives in the Context of Novelty/Innovation 304 (6): 548–557..Google ScholarPubMed
Huxley, Julius (1942), Evolution: The Modern Synthesis. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Kaplan, Jonathan (2008), “Evolutionary Innovations and Developmental Resources: From Stability to Variation and Back Again”, Philosophy of Science, in this issue.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirschner, Marc W., and Gerhart, John C. (2005), The Plausibility of Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Odling-Smee, F. John, Laland, Kevin, and Feldman, Marcus W. (2003), Niche Construction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pinker, Steven (1998), “Behavior: Still Stimulating after All These Years” (review of The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin), Science (July 24): 522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmalhausen, Ivan I. ([1949] 1986), Factors of Evolution: The Theory of Stabilizing Selection. Reprint (Philadelphia: Blakiston). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sclater, Andrew (2003), “The Extent of Charles Darwin's Knowledge of Mendel”, The Extent of Charles Darwin's Knowledge of Mendel 61:134–137.Google Scholar
Waddington, C. H. (1953), “Genetic Assimilation of an Acquired Character”, Genetic Assimilation of an Acquired Character 7:118–126.Google Scholar
West-Eberhard, Mary Jane (2003), Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West-Eberhard, Mary Jane (2005), “Phenotypic Accommodation: Adaptive Innovation due to Developmental Plasticity”, Phenotypic Accommodation: Adaptive Innovation due to Developmental Plasticity 304:610–618.Google ScholarPubMed