Stephen Jay Gould Quotes:
Ocupation: Paleontologist
Life: September 10, 1941 - May 20, 2002
Birthday: September 10
Death: May 20
A complete theory of evolution must acknowledge a balance between "external" forces of environment imposing selection for local adaptation and "internal" forces representing constraints of inheritance and development. Vavilov placed too much emphasis on internal constraints and downgraded the power of selection. But Western Darwinians have erred equally in practically ignoring (while acknowledging in theory) the limits placed on selection by structure and development what Vavilov and the older biologists would have called "laws of form.
source: Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History”, p.144, W. W. Norton & Company
topic: Law, Theory Of Evolution, Balance, External Forces
