Equation 1 · One Gene, Forty Eyes: What Evo-Devo Did to the Convergence Story
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Symbol i
i is part of the quantity the equation computes from the expression on the right.
Symbol V
V is part of the quantity the equation computes from the expression on the right.
=
The expressions on both sides represent the same quantity under the stated assumptions.
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A raised number can be a power. When it is a label or bound, it selects a case or the upper limit of a sum; the formula’s structure distinguishes these uses.
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To convert steps into generations, Nilsson and Pelger applied the standard quantitative-genetics equation for the response to selection on a continuous trait, deliberately choosing pessimistic values for every free parameter: a heritability of 0.50, a selection intensity of 0.01, and a coefficient of phenotypic variation of 0.01, values the authors describe as common or deliberately conservative rather than favourable to a fast result [ 4 ] . Those choices give a fractional improvement of only 0.005 percent of the trait mean per generation. Compounding that per-generation rate to reach the full 1,829 steps of one-percent change — equivalent to a single structure lengthening by a factor of…
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To convert steps into generations, Nilsson and Pelger applied the standard quantitative-genetics equation for the response to selection on a continuous trait, deliberately choosing pessimistic values for every free parameter: a heritability of 0.50, a selection intensity of 0.01, and a coefficient of phenotypic variation of 0.01, values the authors describe as common or deliberately conservative rather than favourable to a fast result [ 4 ] . Those choices give a fractional improvement of only 0.005 percent of the trait mean per generation. Compounding that per-generation rate to reach the full 1,829 steps of one-percent change — equivalent to a single structure lengthening by a factor of just over eighty million — requires solving:
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