The work of Schulter is changing how biologists think evolution works:
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I was especially interested in … how competitive interactions — competition for food — caused them to become much more different than they would otherwise have been,” Schluter said. “And this seems to be a common explanation for the diversity of forms.”
This finding contradicted the received wisdom at the time that a new species would not arise if the existing population was still in contact and exchanging genes.
Before Schluter’s observations of the Galapagos finches, evolutionary biologists thought new species predominantly arose through isolation — when one population became geographically separated from another and because of this isolation accumulated genetic changes through chance mutations.
“Evolutionary biologists were much more focused and interested in the genetic mechanism. They missed what was going on in nature,>>
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/30/world/dolph-schluter-profile-crafoord-prize-scn
<<
I was especially interested in … how competitive interactions — competition for food — caused them to become much more different than they would otherwise have been,” Schluter said. “And this seems to be a common explanation for the diversity of forms.”
This finding contradicted the received wisdom at the time that a new species would not arise if the existing population was still in contact and exchanging genes.
Before Schluter’s observations of the Galapagos finches, evolutionary biologists thought new species predominantly arose through isolation — when one population became geographically separated from another and because of this isolation accumulated genetic changes through chance mutations.
“Evolutionary biologists were much more focused and interested in the genetic mechanism. They missed what was going on in nature,>>
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/30/world/dolph-schluter-profile-crafoord-prize-scn