The fossil record shows that evolution from the ancient common ancestor to the modern horse species was slow and had many intermediate forms. What is this an example of?
1 Answer
This is an example of normal evolution.
Explanation:
According to Neo Darwinian Evolution based on Lyell's theory of Uniform Geology changes occur very slowly and in small increments
Other forms of evolution such as Puncuated Equilibrium would say that the changes occur in isolated communities at a much faster rate. Also the intermediate forms are not usually found because all the changes occur in a small area.
According to Neo Darwinian Evolution the random accidental mutations result in ever increasing complexity and information in the DNA of the organism.
Interestingly the horse sequence shows the opposite of what is predicted by the Neo Darwinian Model. The horse starts out with four toes on the back and three in the front. Then loses information for the four toes and becomes only three toes. The modern horse has only one toe having lost the complexity and information for multiple toes.
