Journal
JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF BIOLOGY
Volume 41, Issue 2, Pages 339-367Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10739-007-9145-5
Keywords
adaptationism; Arthur J. Cain; Cepaea nemoralis; conspicuous polymorphism; ecological genetics; evolution; Maxime Lamotte; natural selection; Philip M. Sheppard; random genetic drift; selectionist
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Biologists and philosophers have been extremely pessimistic about the possibility of demonstrating random drift in nature, particularly when it comes to distinguishing random drift from natural selection. However, examination of a historical case Maxime Lamotte's study of natural populations of the land snail, Cepaea nemoralis in the 1950s - shows that while some pessimism is warranted, it has been overstated. Indeed, by describing a unique signature for drift and showing that this signature obtained in the populations under study, Lamotte was able to make a good case for a significant role for drift. It may be difficult to disentangle the causes of drift and selection acting in a population, but it is not (always) impossible.
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