Not really. A genetic defect is a precursor to evolution. If the trait doesn’t benefit the animal and isn’t passed on with reproduction there is no evolutionary process, just a dead mutant.
I think it's more that they're trying to point out the difference between evolution and genetic mutations. Evolution is what occurs on a macroscopic level over a long period of time to organisms. Genetic mutations are what happens on the microscopic level that could play part in the evolution of an organism. That doesn't mean that a genetic mutation implies that the animal has evolved.
I'm an evolutionary biologist and this is incorrect. By definition, evolution occurs any time the frequency of alleles changes in a population. Microevolution is still evolution. That means that a single novel mutation is still evolution, even if it doesn't spread to fixation in the population.
De-ficere means to abandon (to fail, to desert, etc).
Evolution is the study of defects in the truest sense of the word.
It’s the meaning of defect in the genetic context.
The only way genetic defects are not synonymous with evolution, is to not know what those words mean.
Their comment is a string of inherent contradictions, you don’t even need to know a single thing about anything, pure logic is enough to defeat their nonsense.
The process consists of … but … is not part of the process.
Evolution is the study of defects in the truest sense of the word. It’s the meaning of defect in the genetic context.
The only way genetic defects are not synonymous with evolution, is to not know what those words mean.
That's literally not true. Evolution is not the "study of [genetic] defects in the truest sense of the word". There are a lot more processes to evolution than just mutations.
Just because something is something, it can’t also be other things, be made up of multiple parts.
The biological study of evolution includes, and is fundamentally based on, studying the defects in replication going back as far as we can.
Understanding which ones are ecologically viable and the spectrum of possible, and potentially real defects, is also an aspect of it.
For short, genetic defects is an accurate description of [one of] the mechanism[s] of evolution.
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u/Lou_LL_11 Mar 06 '25
Genetic defect is just another word for evolution.