In some sense, evolutionary biologists start by creating "just so" stories to explain the presence of traits, except their approach is to understand and reconstruct the actual evolutionary history of a trait. Evolutionary biology is in part a historical science: we see the products of natural selection and other evolutionary forces, but generally we cannot follow the entire process that is responsible for these specific traits. What then is a biologist to do?

Question

Conrad Harrison

Biology

19 June, 19:02

In some sense, evolutionary biologists start by creating "just so" stories to explain the presence of traits, except their approach is to understand and reconstruct the actual evolutionary history of a trait. Evolutionary biology is in part a historical science: we see the products of natural selection and other evolutionary forces, but generally we cannot follow the entire process that is responsible for these specific traits. What then is a biologist to do?

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Answers (1)

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Ezra Curtis · Answer 1

Scientists can use the parsimony principle and hypothesize about some evolutionary pathways.

Explanation:

As evolutionary biologists are unable to state how evolutionary pathways led to the present, they must use the parsimony principle, which states that the answers to evolution questions are the simpler ones or the ones with less explanation to do. This not only occurs in evolution but also in systematic and phylogenetic.