quote:
About the only major thing Darwin got wrong (and maybe it shoudn't be called "major" ) is the idea that the rate of change would be constant.
Except that Darwin didn't claim that at all.
http://pages.britishlibrary.net/...gin_6th/origin6th_15.html
"...the periods, during which species have undergone modification, though long as measured by years, have probably been short in comparison with the periods during which they retained the same form. It is the dominant and widely ranging species which vary most frequently and vary most, and varieties are often at first loca; both causes rendering the discovery of intermediate links in any one formation less likely. Local varieties will not spread into other and distant regions until they are considerably modified and improved; and when they have spread, and are discovered in a geological formation, they appear as if suddenly created there, and will be simply classed as new species.
6th Edn.
The Origin of Species
Darwin's biggest mistake was his ideas on heredity - and it turned out that Mendelian ideas were more helpful to Darwin's theory than his own, wrong, ideas.
This message has been edited by PaulK, 03-21-2005 05:43 AM
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