I know it's a FAQ, but that doesn't stop it from fascinating me. I'm
actually less interested in the standard eye example and more interested in
earlier periods (going back to prebiotic)
James
> On Fri, Apr 20, 2001 at 06:36:55PM -0400, James Tauber wrote:
> > One thing that has always fascinated me is the number of genotypic
mutations
> > that need to take place for the phenotype to have a beneficial change.
It's
> > not as if a single change to the DNA has an immediate benefit. You
really
> > need somehow to built change-upon-change, each of which has no
individual
> > benefit, but the whole sequence of changes leads to a benefit. Survival
of
> > the fittest can't kick in until the benefit does and so a partial
sequence
> > of changes leading to a benefit would be have no greater chance that one
> > that doesn't lead to a benefit.
> >
>
> This is pretty much an "FAQ" as far as evolutionary biology goes. The
> canonical example is - how do you evolve an eye or a wing, given that
"half an
> eye" or "half a wing" confers no advantage until the entire mechanism is
in
> place?
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