A comparison of cone and needle characters in Abies: a test of a new theory of evolution

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
One part of a new theory of evolution proposed by Wiley and Brooks is that evolution results in continually increasing complexity. This leads to the unique prediction that once speciation occurs and species are embarked on independent histories, developmentally independent characters will become more correlated. This was tested by comparig cone and needle characters for some Abies species from different levels in a hierarchy, i.e., from the population level, where one would predict low correlations, to the supraspecific level, where one would predict high correlations. In a general sense, these predictions were realized. The results also indicated approximately equal correlations between cone and needle characters at levels below the species. These results were unexpected since one would predict that allopatric populations in the analyses would be embarked on independent histories because they are reproductively isolated and this would show correlations between cone and needle characters. This implies that reproductive isolation may not be a basic evolutionary event but that the dynamic interaction between entropic decay of information and reproductive linkages, the view presented in the new theory of evolution mentioned above, may be.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: