What is modern synthesis

Bowler offers the most reliable general account of the long history of evolutionary thought from Antiquity to the present, with good coverage of the modern synthesis and some of its subsequent challenges. Gayon offers a more rigorous conceptual history as understood by a philosopher. Though it is devoted to tracing out the idea of progress and how it played out in formulations of evolution, Ruse devotes appreciable space to the synthesis and to the work of some of the architects.

Yet another useful resource is Gould , which showcases the modern synthesis of evolution as it attempts to outline the structure of evolutionary theory. Though a bit dated, Bendall and Grene provide some important and insightful essays on modern evolutionary biology that have proven pivotal in its historical and philosophical study. To date, however, Mayr and Provine cited under General Overviews on the Modern Synthesis of Evolution remains the foundational work or entry point to the topic, and Smocovitis cited under General Overviews on the Modern Synthesis of Evolution offers the sole coherent historical account in book form see also General Overviews on the Modern Synthesis of Evolution.

Bendall, D. Evolution from molecules to men. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Bowler, Peter. Evolution: The history of an idea.

Berkeley: Univ. Standard work providing general history of the idea of evolution from Antiquity to the late 20th century. Futuyma, Douglas J. Sunderland, UK: Sinauer Press. Major scientific textbook that provides useful historical backdrop to developments in modern evolutionary biology; now in the fourth edition. Prior to the rediscovery of Mendel's work, the major theory now discredited for inheritance was that of blended inheritance, according to which not only were the children's traits were always intermediate between those of their parents, but the genetic material which they passed on the next generation was also mixed.

So there was no way to pass on "fitness" if the "fit" and unfit types mated freely, the genetic material itself was changed by interbreeding. Mendel's work, still held to be valid over a century later, refuted the idea of blended inheritance and actually showed that genetic material did not change from generation to generation, that genes were discrete, even if phenotypes traits were not.

Mendel also showed that recessive traits could be hidden for several generations. The authors who united Mendel's and Darwin's work also added their own ideas. The Modern Synthesis also called neo-Darwinism was the work of many people, combining experimental and theoretical approaches, including Fisher, Haldane, Wright, Dobzhansky, Mayr, Huxley, Simpson, and Williams. According to the Modern Synthesis more info the mainstream theory of biological evolution , change in gene pools and therefore in populations of organisms is caused not just by natural selection, but also by mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift.

Furthermore, Fisher argued that directional natural selection could not operate continuously, as it eliminates genetic variation for the trait being selected upon but must stop once the population is no longer variable.

Important new discoveries have been made since the Modern Synthesis was composed, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA, the endosymbiotic origin of mitochondria and chloroplasts, and the role of genetics in developmental biology, but, these have simply been incorporated into the Synthesis.

To that end, he tracked mutations and differences between fly populations in the lab. Dobzhansky noted the arrangements of chromosomes in different Drosophila species as well as their mutation rates. In his book Genetics and the Origin of Species , published in , Dobzhansky argued that genetic mutations were sources of variability that, through natural selection, could lead to evolutionary change, and he suggested that these processes could lead to speciation of populations that are isolated long enough.

Dobzhansky published updated versions of his book for decades; the last version, released in , bore the title Genetics of the Evolutionary Process. Reflections on reflections: ecology and evolutionary biology. Journal of the History of Biology, 19 2 , — Gilbert, S. Conceptual breakthroughs in developmental biology. Journal of Biosciences, 23 3 , — American Zoologist, 40 5 , — Resynthesizing evolutionary and developmental biology.

Developmental Biology, 2 , — Gottlieb, G. Individual development and evolution: The genesis of novel behavior. New York: Oxford University Press. Hamburger, V. Embryology and the modern synthesis in evolutionary theory. Provine Eds. Koch, P. Regulation of dopa decarboxylase expression during colour pattern formation in wild-type and melanic tiger swallowtail butterflies. Development, 12 , — PubMed Google Scholar.

Macdonald, S.