Most tend to assume evolution is proved, the missing link is found, and all we have left is a few rough edges to smooth out. Darwin never really did discuss the origin of the species in his Origin of the Species . But in the last thirty years or so speciation has emerged as the major unsolved problem. The British geneticist, William Bateson, was the first to focus attention on the question. Sixty years later we are, if anything, worse off, research having only revealed complexity within complexity.
Evolution is . .
If the theory was true, there would be no sharp distinctions, just a blur. We recognize the great powers of observation possessed by Darwin, but we are amazed that he did not observe the limits of variation. All they do is remain in existence or become extinct. In a fascinating editorial feature in Natural History, Stephen Gould writes that biologists have been quite successful in dividing up the living world into distinct and discrete species. If all life forms have been produced by gradual expansion through selected mutations from a small beginning gene pool, organisms really should just grade into one another without distinct boundaries.