Summary
Two problems are discussed. The first is whether there has been time for evolution by natural selection to have occurred. The concept of a “protein space” is introduced, and it is shown that a fundamental inequality, concerning the proportion of all amino acid sequences which form functional proteins, must be satisfied if evolution is to occur. The second is whether there is any biological law (analogous to the second law) which enables us to put a time arrow on evolutionary processes. It is argued that Fisher’s “fundamental theorem of natural selection” does not meet this need.
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References
Fisher, R. A.: The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. London: Oxford University-Press 1930.
King, J. L., Jukes, T. H.: Non-Darwinian Evolution. Science 164 (1969) 788–798.
Maynard Smith, J.: The Limitations of Molecular Evolution. In: The Scientist Speculates, ed. I. J. Good London: Heinemann 1961.
Moorhead, P. S., Kaplan, M. M.: Mathematical Challenges to the neo-Darwinian interpretation of evolution. Philadelphia: Wistar Institute Press 1967.
Spiegelmann, S.: The mechanism of RNA replication. Cold Spring Harb. Symp. quant. Biol. 33 (1968) 101–124.
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© 1972 Springer-Verlag, Berlin · Heidelberg
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Smith, J.M. (1972). Time in the Evolutionary Process. In: Fraser, J.T., Haber, F.C., Müller, G.H. (eds) The Study of Time. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65387-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65387-2_14
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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