Ontogeny, phylogeny and the origin of biological information.
Accepting the evidence that evolution is largely finished and that sexual reproduction is incapable of supporting macroevolution, indicates that macroevolutionary changes were produced presexually through the cytological events associated with the first meiotic division. This reproductive mode is ideally suited to the production of new structural rearrangements of preexisting genetic information in instantaneous homozygous form. These new arrangements (position effects) produce new and discrete species. Thus, speciation results not from new genetic information, but rather from information already present (preformed). The several parallels that exist between epigenesis and preformation in both ontogeny (development) and phylogeny (evolution) are discussed. I propose that both of these phenomena have proceeded through the selective activation (derepression) of an enormous potential supply of information already present at the onset of each of these biological phenomena. Acceptance of these possibilities can serve to liberate us in our quest for the ultimate truth concerning these two closely related phenomena.
University of Vermont, 107 Hills Building, Burlington, VT 05405, USA.
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Davison
D000818:Animals; D001695:Biology; D010802:Phylogeny