AndrewC is using some non-standard terminology, but seems to be talking about a standard idea, originally introduced by Sewall Wright, of an "adaptive lanscape". This is a topological schemata where the Z-axis represents relative fitness, and the X & Y axes (sp?) represent genetic or phenotypic variation. In a given environment, X/Y coordinates of high fitness represent "peaks," and ones of low fitness represent "valleys". AndrewC causes confusion by writing about "stable" environments, but of course virtually no real environments are "stable" in the sense that peaks and valleys in the adaptive landscape remain fixed.
A random mutation in the length of the jaw bone doesn't carry everything else along with it.
Actually it usually does, in fact, do exactly that. This is due to mechanisms of embryological development in which, for instance, architecture develops according to position along chemical gradients, and the growth of structure is influenced by, and coordinated wrt, adjacent structures.
Great stuff. Bump. The left struggles to keep discredited 19th century ideas like Marxism and evolutionism alive, and they're succeeding so far, having brainwashed a couple of generations of school kids and college students in the last few decades. The TRUTH about the left will come out, however, despite having evolution, global warming, the coming ice age, hole-in-the-ozone and other ... politically motivated junk-science --- from colleges being repeated unquestioned and unproven by the brainwashed.
159 Posted on 08/25/2001 19:22:32 PDT by gg188