Couple of sources: (Oh, and Dr. Zim, your spelling of Richard Goldschmidt was.... inventive. :)) Jon "Stuck on top of tower. Great view, but constant pelting sleet not good for pointy hat. Am amusing self by spitting gum down on the Orcs." From: The Very Secret Diary of Gandalf the Grey
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/people/richard_goldschmidt.html Biographical Sketch Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958), a brilliant but unorthodox geneticist, did not believe that Charles Darwin's idea of slow, gradual changes could account for the origin of species. Forced out of his native Germany by the Nazis, he continued to develop his research at the University of California at Berkeley, where he wrote his magnum opus The Material Basis of Evolution published in 1940. Although he recognized the constant accumulation of small changes in populations (microevolution), he believed they did not lead to speciation. Between true species he saw "bridgeless gaps" that could only be accounted for by large sudden jumps, resulting in "hopeful monsters." Goldschmidt tried to explore possible genetic mechanisms of how rapid change might occur in lineages of organisms. He suggested that a relatively small change might have a large effect on the phenotype, especially through "controlling" genes which mediate the expression of the organism's blueprint. Later, he thought macromutations or mutants (which used to be called "monsters") might arise in a single generation, and this biological novelty might enjoy a selective advantage under changing environmental conditions. That was where the "hopeful" came in. One hope was that the mutation would prove so useful in the newly changed environment that it would become selected as a new norm. Another hope was that the variant would appear often enough in the population to allow several similar "monsters" to find one another and produce offspring. There is a grotesque humor about the unfortunate phrase "hopeful monsters" that lent itself to caricatures of Goldschmidt's ideas and obscured the theoretical issues. >From m-w.com One entry found for saltation. Main Entry: sal.ta.tion Pronunciation: sal-'tA-sh&n, sol- Function: noun Etymology: Latin saltation-, saltatio, from saltare to leap, dance, frequentative of salire to leap -- more at SALLY Date: 1646 1 a : the action or process of leaping or jumping b : DANCE 2 a : the origin of a new species or a higher taxon in essentially a single evolutionary step that in some especially former theories is held to be due to a major mutation or to unknown causes -- compare DARWINISM, NEO-DARWINISM, PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM b : MUTATION -- used especially of bacteria and fungi -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Dan Minette Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 11:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julia Thompson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 10:23 PM Subject: Re: Darwin Radio [was: First real post - Hugo Noms] > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > In a message dated 1/27/2003 6:48:39 AM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > > > > But isn't speciation itself a jump? You can't change > > > from a being with, say, 44 chromosomes per cell to a > > > being with 46 without a jump. > > > > A few more thoughts. The notion of an evolutionary jump is called a > > saltation and the theory was put forth by Richard Goldsmicht > > Do you know why it's called a saltation? I think it was explained to me > once in college, but I've forgotten. :( > Because it had to be taken with a grain of salt? Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
