What Caused the Sudden Rise of New Species?

[Rade]

See this recent paper on hypothesis of sudden origins of species:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060126194000.htm

I start this thread to open discussion on the paper.

 

[Reality_Patrol]

I thought it was quite interesting and well written. Much needs to be tested. A couple of quotes I really liked:

{If an organisms features are not adaptations to specific environmental circumstances, we can decouple "evolution" and "adaptation".}

and

{The lack of something (DNA homeostasis), rather than a persistent mechanism (constant mutation rate or natural selection), permits "evolution"...}

Their model isn't wholly novel but the specific mechanism they propose might be. Still, I don't think it covers everything, e.g. they don't do a very good job of explaining how environmental factors, other than temperature, could provoke/overwhelm the HSR. They mention other conditions, but only really explain temperature-invoked mutations.

Overall a nice read, 2 thumbs up!