拉马克的归来—对达尔文主义的再审视

Lamarck redux-a revisit of Darwinism

适应性突变(adaptive mutation)和表观遗传学(epigenetics)的新进展为拉马克主张的"获得性遗传"提供了越来越多的证据,暗示它在生物进化中所起的作用可能远比我们之前想象的要大的多。这虽然与新达尔文主义相左,但却在一定程度上符合经典达尔文主义:作为"自然选择"的重要补充,"获得性遗传"至少应视作一个辅助的机制而纳入"达尔文框架"中。这种建立在多元论基础上的进化观正是达尔文留给后人最重要的遗产。

With the latest development of adaptive mutation and epigenetics,it has become more and more evident to us that the inheritance of acquired characters plays a more important role than what we thought before.This would be a challenge to neo-Darwinian theory,but consistent with classical Darwinism to some extent：the inheritance of acquired characters,as a significant supplement of ＂natural selection＂,can be incorporated into the framework of Darwinism,regarded as a auxiliary part.This view of evolution on the basis of polyphyletic theory is the most important legacy of Darwin.