I posted this in The Newsgroup that Cannot Be Named, and someone named
"Dopey" suggested I post it here too. So:

[moderator's note: Duh-hee! - JAH]

Wheeler, Quentin D., and Norman I. Platnick. 2000. The phylogenetic
species concept (sensu Wheeler and Platnick). In Species concepts and
phylogenetic theory: A debate, edited by Q. D. Wheeler and R. Meier. New
York: Columbia University Press, 55-69; on page 62:


"The process of evolution" has become an unfortunate cliché in biology
textbooks, perpetuating a sloppiness in the use of the word _evolution_
that contributes to semantic confusion. Textbook definitions about
changes in gene frequency notwithstanding, there is no "process of
evolution." Instead, evolutionary patterns are the cumulative result of
countless kinds of processes acting singly and in combination. Genetic
drift, sexual selection, allopatry, allochronic sympatry, giant
astroblemes on the earth's surface, and just plain old luck can all be
evolutionary processes. Fortunately, the end result of evolutionary
processes has been a single pattern of common ancestry, made retrievable
by the hierarchical relationships among species' characters and the
unique combination of characters distinguishing (phylogenetic) species.


I don't think they meant the astroblemes are the cause of evolution,
except as local geology, but the bolides that cause them. Other than
that, I thought this worth saying.
-- 
John Wilkins wilkins.id.au
For long you live and high you fly, 
and smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
and all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be
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