This view of phylo-development introduces a major insight into the Origin of Species and where Darwin went wrong. Species have their origin in higher taxonomic levels of the lineage and also in sister species.
Species signal that the lineage has arrived at the end of the line.
Because speciation is so rampant today, however, Darwin assumed, and his followers followed suit, that species are and always have been the beginning of phyletic lineages. Such upward trends have never been observed, and never will be according to the developmental perspective because lineages develop from the top down. These classical evolutionary theories are a gross oversimplification of an immensely complex and intricate mass of facts, and it amazes me that they are swallowed so uncritically and readily, and for such a long time, by so many scientists without a murmur of protest. However, this assertion is not based on any factual evidence, for nobody has ever demonstrated that natural selection can bring about anything but events that are trivial from an evolutionary perspective. The educated public continues to believe that Darwin has provided all the relevant answers by the magic formula of random mutation plus natural selection - quite unaware of the fact that random mutations turned out to be irrelevant and natural selection a tautology.