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Dollo's law

A Dictionary of Earth Sciences | 1999 | | Copyright

Dollo's law Evolutionary irreversibility: once regarded as inevitable, but now considered to apply mainly in special cases. The potential for further useful mutation may well be very limited in highly specialized organisms, since only those mutations that will allow the organism to continue in its narrow niche will normally be functionally possible. In such cases there is therefore a self-perpetuating, almost irreversible, evolutionary trend, so much so that it is regarded virtually as a law, ‘Dollo's law’ (after the palaeontologist Louis Dollo). The trend results from steady directional selective pressure, or orthoselection reinforced by specialization, or developmental canalization (see CANALIZING SELECTION).

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AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "Dollo's law." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "Dollo's law." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-Dolloslaw.html

AILSA ALLABY and MICHAEL ALLABY. "Dollo's law." A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. 1999. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O13-Dolloslaw.html

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Dollo's law

A Dictionary of Ecology | 2004 | | Copyright

Dollo's law A law proposed by LouisDollo, describing evolutionary irreversibility: once regarded as inevitable, but now considered to apply mainly in special cases. The potential for further useful mutation may well be very limited in highly specialized organisms, since only those mutations that will allow the organism to continue in its narrow niche will normally be functionally possible. In such cases there is therefore a self-perpetuating, almost irreversible, evolutionary trend, so much so that it is regarded virtually as a law, Dollo's law. The trend results from steady directional selective pressure, or orthoselection reinforced by specialization.

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MICHAEL ALLABY. "Dollo's law." A Dictionary of Ecology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 30 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MICHAEL ALLABY. "Dollo's law." A Dictionary of Ecology. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 30, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O14-Dolloslaw.html

MICHAEL ALLABY. "Dollo's law." A Dictionary of Ecology. 2004. Retrieved May 30, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O14-Dolloslaw.html

Learn more about citation styles