Quote:
Originally Posted by ddave
Do the new books on evolution replace this work. I think not.
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Nobody said that newer work replaced it. But there is so much that Darwin didn't know, that is known now, He knew that there was
something that was passed on from one generation to the next, somehow-- but he didn't even know about Mendel and the rules he worked out for inheritance. He didn't know about DNA. He didn't know (even within an order of magnitude) the age of the Earth. Today we are reaching the point of not only knowing that
something changed to make one species different from another, but also being able to know exactly
what changed-- the exact geneome of any living species we choose to take the time and effort (both falling all the time) to sequence.
Origin is important, but it is only a small start. So don't avoid reading
Origin as a historical document, but the science has advanced far beyond the 1860s. You might want to include some books I mentioned in the science books thread, plus
In Search of Deep Time-- if I haven't mentioned it already-- for a primer on cladistics, a more useful tool for sorting out evolutionary relationships than the old Linnean system that Darwin knew.
As for discussing
Origin (or related things) somebody can start throwing out statements or questions...