The Evolution of Form and Pattern

Darwin himself recognised this problem, but the modern version of Darwinism, the 'synthetic' or 'neo-Darwinist' theory of evolution, claims to have solved it. To quote from a standard textbook on the subject: "The joint action of mutation, whereby variation arises, and selection, whereby it is shaped into coherent adaptive form, is considered sufficient explanation of the evolutionary process" [ 1 ]. The neo-Darwinist solution to the problem of the origin of variations is based on Weismann's doctrine of the inde-