38

4

Evolution

Fig. 4.2 An example of a genetic algorithm. One complete cycle constitutes one generation. Sur-

vival selection strategy determines which offspring, and which parents, are allowed to pass through

to the next generation and which of those are allowed to become parents in the next cycle

array of facts of taxonomy, ecology, distribution, and behaviour. Its extension to

the family and larger systematic units is progressively a matter of more and more

extrapolation …At every level above the lowest we need to explain the origin of

new genes, and this we cannot do”. Kimura (1989) acknowledges that the Darwinian

theory by natural selection has been a great unifying principle in biology, but provides

compelling evidence for the great majority of evolutionary changes at the molecular

level being caused by random fixation of selectively neutral alleles through random

sample drift under continued mutation pressure, rather than by Darwinian selection.

Hence, instead of “survival of the fittest” one should perhaps introduce the concept

of “survival of the luckiest”.

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