In my model, ecological variation leads to nutrient-dependent ecological adaptations manifested in the morphological and behavioral phenotypes of species from microbes to man. Conserved molecular mechanisms lead from the epigenetic landscape to the physical landscape of DNA in the organized genomes of all species via amino acid substitutions and cell type differentiation.
Cell type differentiation is nutrient-dependent and the metabolism of nutrients to species-specific pheromones controls the physiology of reproduction. Amino acid substitutions that stabilize DNA enable organism-level thermoregulation, which is biophysically constrained by the Laws of Physics.
Alternatively, others have claimed that
1) alleles evolve
2) the definition of evolution suggests that alleles evolve
3) change in the frequency of alleles within a population exemplifies how the definition leads to evolution
4) change in allele frequencies within a population co-occur with biological evolution by natural selection
This pseudoscientific nonsense leads to confusion:
1) Did the wings of birds evolve from the forelimbs of ancestral reptiles?
2) Did the long neck of giraffes evolve?
3) Did the nose of their last universal common ancestor evolve into the elephant’s long trunk?]
Let’s change the definition of evolution to try to end the confusion:
“Evolution is a progressive change.”
1) That change makes it appropriate to limit evolution to whatever occurs via natural selection.
2) It also limits use of the term “evolutionary events” to those that can be used in the context of the evolution of morphological phenotypes.
3) Use of that definition of evolution ignores the fact that behavioral changes must co-occur with morphological changes.
If you are an evolutionary theorist who is concerned only with the evolution of morphology, you can explain evolutionary events in the context of whatever mutations might have somehow caused natural selection to lead to the evolution of biodiversity.
If you are a serious scientist who understands the fact that morphological and behavioral phenotypes must co-occur for ecological variation to lead to the ecological adaptations manifested in biodiversity, youl may joke about what evolutionary theorists think is
1) an evolutionary event;
2) what is naturally selected; and
3) what they think leads to the evolution of biodiversity manifested in morphological AND behavioral phenotypes in species from microbes to man.
For example: “Random mutations are the substrates on which directional natural selection acts” is a statement every serious scientist can joke about.
If the broadest meaning of the definition of the term “evolution” is used, a progressive change equates with the pseudoscientific nonsense touted by evolutionary theorists who seem to think that morphological phenotypes somehow evolve. They seem to not know that evolution is not possible without the co-occurrence of changes in behavior attributed to Genome Dynamics Events (GDE), which link the epigenetic landscape to the physical landscape of DNA in the organized genomes of species from microbes to man via nutrient-dependent amino acid substitutions.
It has become common parlance in biology to speak of phenotypes evolving to become functional attributes of species diversity.No one has explained how that is possible given the need to link the sensory environment to the physical landscape of DNA via conserved molecular mechanisms in species from microbes to man. Thus, people who understand nothing about biologically-based cause and effect may agree that phenotypes are the units of natural selection, and serious scientists will continue to be astounded by their belief in the evolution of biodiversity, which is not based on biological facts that link species from microbes to man via nutrient-dependent pheromone-controlled ecological adaptations.