The Structure of Evolutionary Theory The Structure of Evolutionary Theory The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002) is Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould's technical book on macroevolution and the historical development of evolutionary theory. The book was twenty years in the making, published just two months before Gould's death. Aimed primarily at professionals, the volume is divided into two parts. The first is a historical study of classical evolutionary thought, drawing extensively upon primary documents; the second is a constructive critique of the modern synthesis, and presents a case for an interpretation of biological evolution based largely on hierarchical selection, and the theory of punctuated equilibrium
Hologenome theory of evolution early stages of nodule formation, the plant-rhizobial relationship actually resembles a pathogenesis more than it does a mutualistic association. Lamarckism, the concept that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring (also known as inheritance of acquired characteristics or soft inheritance) incorporated two common ideas of its time: Although Lamarckian theory was rejected by the neo-Darwinism of the modern evolutionary synthesis in which evolution occurs through random variations being subject to natural selection, the hologenome theory has aspects that harken back to Lamarckian concepts. In addition to the traditionally recognized modes of variation