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George C. Williams was an evolutionary biologist with a specialty in ichthyology, best known for his book, Adaptation and Natural Selection, published in 1966, in which he asserted that the concept of evolutionary adaptation should be restricted to cases in which the demographic and population genetic evidence clearly supports the idea that a trait is the result of differential reproductive success. He also provided a strong argument against the concept of group selection and in favor of the classical Darwinian concept of individual selection. He also proposed that William D. Hamilton’s newly proposed concept of kin selection could provide a testable explanation for the phenomena formerly explained by group selection.
Introduction
In 1962, V. C. Wynne-Edwards’ book, Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behavior, was published in England by Oliver and Boyd (Wynne-Edwards 1962). It contained the most comprehensive analysis of animal...
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References
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Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation and natural selection: A critique of some current evolutionary thought. Princeton: Princeton University Press 307 pages.
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Wynne-Edwards, V. C. (1962). Animal dispersion in relation to social behavior. London: Oliver and Boyd 653 pages.
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MacNeill, A.D. (2016). George Williams. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1871-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1871-1
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