Modern evolutionary synthesis
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
The modern revision of Darwinism is commonly known as neo-darwinism, new synthesis, the modern synthesis, or modern evolutionary synthesis. It was subsequent to the publication of Darwin's theory on the origin of species by natural selection. As years passed, biological research illustrated a number of shortcomings with his theories.
At the time Darwin wrote his manuscript, the scientific community knew nothing about genetics or how variation was generated within a population. Gregor Mendel, who is known as the father of modern genetics, published his research several years after Darwin's The Origin of Species. In time, the principles of genetics Mendel set forth established that variability was limited and passed to offspring in predictable patterns. Many decades later, after the structure of DNA was elucidated, and the source of variability was understood to be related to variations of genes (alleles), mutations were proposed as the source of variability driving the evolution of populations.
Biological evolution theory has therefore become an integration of Charles Darwin's theory of the evolution of species by natural selection, Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics as the basis for biological inheritance, random genetic mutation as the source of variation, and mathematical population genetics. This composite of mechanism is known as the modern evolutionary synthesis.
References
- Modern evolutionary synthesis Wikipedia
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