POINT: Yes, urgently

Without an extended
evolutionary framework, the
theory neglects the key
processes
Extended Evolutionary
synthesis

Extended Evolutionary
synthesis
maintains important drivers of
evolution (ones that cant be reduced
to genes)
Living things do not evolve to fit into
the preexisting environments, but co
construct and co evolve with their
environments, in the process
changing the structure of ecosystems

Phenomena which Extended

Evolutionary synthesis
consider as causes of
evolution:

Developmental bias
Plasticity
Niche construction
Extra-genetic inheritance

1. Developmental Bias
how physical development
influences the generation of
variation
explain how organisms adapt to
their environments and diversify

 (hypothesis) developmental bias

and natural selection work
together rather than selection
being free to traverse across any
physical possibility, it is guided
along specific routes opened up
by the processes of
development
Cichlid fishes in Lake Malawi and
Lake Tanganyika

2. Plasticity
individuals respond to their
environment by changing forms
plausible first step in adaptive
evolution
plasticity not only allows
organisms to cope in new
environmental conditions but to
generate traits that are wellsuited to them

3. Niche Construction
organisms co-direct their own
evolution by systematically
changing environments and
thereby biasing selection
Example: Lemon Ants

4. Extra-genetic
inheritance
transmission of epigenetic
marks and socially transmitted
behavior in animals, such as nut
cracking in chimpanzees or the
migratory patterns of reef fishes
Parent offspring similarities

COUNTERPOINT: No,
all is well
---Theory accommodates
evidence through relentless
synthesis
Modern Synthesis

Modern Synthesis
united Darwins concept of natural
selection with the field of genetics
and, to a lesser extent, paleontology
and systematics.
It laid the theoretical foundations
for a quantitative and rigorous
understanding of adaptation and
speciation, two of the most
fundamental evolutionary
processes.

Three reasons why the

topics in Extended
Evolutionary Synthesis is
already receive their due in
current evolutionary theory
1. New word, old concept
2. Modern Expansion
3. Genes are central

1. New word, old

concept
evolutionary phenomena (of
EES) are already well integrated
into evolutionary biology, where
they have long provided useful
insights
Niche construction
Phenotypic plasticity

2. Modern Expansion
the phenomena are just four
among many that offer promise
for future advances in
evolutionary biology.
standard evolutionary theory
--caricature that views the field
as static and monolithic

3. Genes are central

genes--most powerfully predictive,
broadly applicable and empirically
validated component of
evolutionary theory
genetic assimilation
What matters is the heritable
differences in traits, especially
those that bestow some selective
advantage.