Evolution in the light of developmental and cell biology, and vice versa.

Some of the oldest controversies in evolutionary biology stem from disagreement over the origins of adaptive design. Should design be attributed to selection, as Darwin (2) argued, or to development as maintained by Bateson (3)? Gradualism played a crucial role in Darwin’s argument because it showed the power of selection to mold complex traits from small variations. The large variants sometimes produced by development, on the other hand, invite explanation of adaptive form in terms of accident or divine creation. Darwin was uncompromising on this point and cleverly explained developmentally mediated heterochrony as involving complex traits first established by gradual change in ancestral juveniles or adults (2, p. 138).

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