Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-09T14:52:47.237Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Efficacy of Natural Selection as an Evolutionary Agent, with Particular Reference to the Fossil Record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

F. H. T. Rhodes
F. H. T. Rhodes
Affiliation:
Geology Department, University College, Swansea.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The recent suggestion that natural selection of random mutations is inadequate to account for the major features of evolution is rejected. The pattern of evolutionary development in most major groups, the phenomena of extinction and replacement, the rates of appearance of new major taxa, the continuing vitality of the evolutionary process, the overall randomness of evolutionary history, containing directional change within individual lineages, the nature of natural selection, and the geologic evidence for environmental instability are examined. All suggest that natural selection and random variation are adequate to account for the major features of evolutionary history.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 97 , Issue 3 , June 1960 , pp. 177 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1960

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.)

References

REFERENCES

Broadhurst, F. M., 1959. Anthraconaia pulchella sp. nov. and a study of palaeoecology in the Coal Measures of the Oldham area of Lancashire. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., cxiv (for 1958), 523–545.Google Scholar
Brough, , James, , 1958. Time and evolution in Westoll, T. S., Studies on Fossil Vertebrates. Athlone Press, London.Google Scholar
Carozzi, V., and Zadnik, V. E., 1959. Microfacies of Wabash Reef, Wabash, Indiana. Journ. Sed. Pet., 29, 164–171.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. R., 1872. The Origin of Species, 6th ed. London.Google Scholar
De Beer, G. R., 1954. Archaeopteryx and Evolution. Adv. of Sci., xi, 160–170.Google Scholar
Eager, R. M. C., 1951. Growth and variation in the non–marine lamellibranch fauna above the Sand Rock mine of the Lancashire Millstone Grit. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., cvii, 339–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, T. N., 1958. Rates of change in evolution. Science Progress, xlvi, 409–428.Google Scholar
Kettlewell, H. B. D., 1955. Selection experiments on industrial melanism in the Lepidoptera. Heredity, 9, 323–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayne, K. T., Lambert, R. St. J., and York, D., 1959. The geological time scale. Nature, 183, 212–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, R. C. (editor), 1956. Coelenterata. Part F. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology. Geol. Soc. Amer. and University of Kansas.Google Scholar
Newell, N. D., 1952. Periodicity in invertebrate evolution. Journ. Paleont., 26, 371–385.Google Scholar
Rhodes, F. H. T. (in the press). The evolution of Life. Pelican Books, London.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G., 1949. The meaning of evolution. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G., 1951. Horses. Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Simpson, G. G., 1953. The major features of evolution. Columbia University Press, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, , Alwyn, , 1957. Evolutionary rates of Brachiopods. Geol. Mag., xciv, 201–211.Google Scholar