“If the only available genes produce rather large changes, disadvantageous one at a time, then it seems to me probable that evolution will not occur in a random mating population. In a self-fertilised or highly inbred species it may do so if several mutations useful in conjunction, but separately harmful, occur simultaneously. Such an event is rare, but must happen reasonably often in wheat…”

— J. B. S. Haldane , book The Causes of Evolution

Source: The Causes of Evolution (1932), Ch. IV Natural Selection, p. 104.

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J. B. S. Haldane 32

Geneticist and evolutionary biologist 1892–1964

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“Natural selection eliminates and maybe maintains, but it doesn't create… Neo-Darwinists say that new species emerge when mutations occur and modify an organism. I was taught over and over again that the accumulation of random mutations led to evolutionary change [which] led to new species. I believed it until I looked for evidence.”

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J. B. S. Haldane 32

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