Astonishing Study Shows Evolution Really Does Repeat Itself
2nd June 2024
Evolution is often thought of as a haphazard process acting on an assortment of traits that randomly appear through genetic variation.
So much so that if we were to wind back the clock on evolution and “replay the tape of life,” the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould said, he doubts “anything like Homo sapiens would ever evolve again.”
But a new study of stick insects suggests that evolution may sometimes repeat itself in a predictable manner, which could help our understanding of how organisms may change in response to selection pressures.
Why this comes as a surprise puzzles me. Environmental conditions favor certain traits over others; this is the whole basis of the notion of ‘convergent evolution’. Modern epigenetics demonstrates that environmental factors will influence gene expression, and so it takes very little brain to realize that similar environments will promote similar epigenetic changes.
What passes for ‘science’ these days is very weak beer.