#Edit this page Wikipedia (en) copyright Wikipedia Atom feed Saltation (biology) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Saltation (disambiguation). Question book-new.svg This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010) This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (July 2008) In biology, saltation (from Latin, saltus, "leap") is a sudden change from one generation to the next, that is large, or very large, in comparison with the usual variation of an organism. The term is used for occasionally hypothesized, nongradual changes (especially single-step speciation) that are atypical of, or violate, standard concepts - gradualism - involved in neo-Darwinian evolution. Saltation does not fit into contemporary evolutionary theory^[citation needed], but there are some prominent proponents, including Carl Woese. Woese, and colleagues, suggested that the absence of RNA signature continuum between domains of bacteria, archaea, and eukarya constitutes a primary indication that the three primary organismal lineages materialized via one or more major evolutionary saltations from some universal ancestral state involving dramatic change in cellular organization that was significant early in the evolution of life, but in complex organisms gave way to the generally accepted Darwinian mechanisms.^[1] Polyploidy (most common in plants but not unknown in animals) is considered a type of saltation ^[2], even though most polyploid individuals are sterile^[verification needed]. Polyploidy meets the basic criteria of saltation in that a significant change (in gene numbers) results in speciation in just one generation. Mammalian liver cells are typically polyploidal, but they are not part of the germ line. Contents * 1 Punctuated Equilibrium * 2 Pop culture * 3 See also * 4 Notes and references [edit] Punctuated Equilibrium It is a popular misconception that punctuated equilibrium is a saltationist theory, often mistaken for Richard Goldschmidt's hypothesis of "Hopeful Monsters."^[3] However, punctuated equilibrium refers instead to a pattern of evolution where most speciation occurs relatively rapidly from a geological perspective (tens of thousands of years instead of millions of years), but through neo-Darwinian evolution, not by saltations. [edit] Pop culture In popular culture, a form of saltation appears to have emerged from misconceptions over currently accepted theories of evolution (the X-men and its various spin-offs being the most egregious examples). It was also fictionalized in Greg Bear's novel, Darwin's Radio. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ( and many other, similar science-fiction pieces ) are not examples of saltationism, however. A saltation would be a substantial change that takes place during reproduction; a case when a child belongs to a different species than its parents - between generations, not during a generation. [edit] See also * Catastrophism * Phyletic gradualism * Rapid modes of evolution * The Blind Watchmaker * History of evolutionary thought * Eclipse of Darwinism [edit] Notes and references 1. ^ Elijah Roberts, Anurag Sethi/-, Jonathan Montoya, Carl R. Woese, and Zaida Luthey-Schulten (May 19, 2008). "Molecular signatures of ribosomal evolution". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://www.pnas.org/content/105/37/13953.full?sid=f3651397-00e9-4a 57-802b-f41c6ef6cf5a. 2. ^ France Dufresne, Paul D. N. Herbert (1994). "Hybridization and origins of polyploidy". Proceedings of the Royal Society. http://www.jstor.org/pss/49988. Retrieved 2010-05-06. 3. ^ Gould, Stephen Jay. "Punctuated Equilibrium's Threefold History". The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. Harvard University Press. pp. 1006-1021. http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_structure.html. Retrieved 2008-05-05. "[T]he urban legend rests on the false belief that ... punctuated equilibrium became a saltational theory wedded to Goldschmidt's hopeful monsters as a mechanism. I have labored to refute this nonsensical charge from the day I first heard it." Stub icon This evolution-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v o d o e Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltation_(biology)" Categories: Evolutionary biology | Evolution stubs Hidden categories: Articles needing additional references from March 2010 | All articles needing additional references | Wikipedia articles needing cleanup from July 2008 | All articles needing cleanup | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from February 2009 | All pages needing factual verification | Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from April 2009 Personal tools * New features * Log in / create account Namespaces * Article * Discussion Variants Views * Read * Edit * View history Actions Search ____________________ (Submit) Search Navigation * Main page * Contents * Featured content * Current events * Random article * Donate Interaction * Help * About Wikipedia * Community portal * Recent changes * Contact Wikipedia Toolbox * What links here * Related changes * Upload file * Special pages * Permanent link * Cite this page Print/export * Create a book * Download as PDF * Printable version Languages * Català * Español * Français * Italiano * Nederlands * ¥¬ * Polski * Português * Russkij * Suomi * Ukrayins'ka * This page was last modified on 4 September 2010 at 14:56. * Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. 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