Evolution Doesn’t Always Go In The “Right” Direction
November 9, 2009
This is a very interesting article indeed… Up until the time I read it, I had figured that evolution always tended to go in the direction of refinement, betterment and adaptability. Now it seems that that is not always the case.
There’s a Speed Limit to the Pace of Evolution, Penn Biologists Say
PHILADELPHIA –- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a theoretical model that informs the understanding of evolution and determines how quickly an organism will evolve using a catalogue of “evolutionary speed limits.” The model provides quantitative predictions for the speed of evolution on various “fitness landscapes,” the dynamic and varied conditions under which bacteria, viruses and even humans adapt.
A major conclusion of the work is that for some organisms, possibly including humans, continued evolution will not translate into ever-increasing fitness. Moreover, a population may accrue mutations at a constant rate –- a pattern long considered the hallmark of “neutral” or non-Darwinian evolution -– even when the mutations experience Darwinian selection.
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