The Loom has a very interesting guest post by evo-devo expert Dr. Jerry Coyne. Coyne lets off a nice diatribe against a New York Times blog post by Olivia Judson that claims recent evidence related to evo-devo corroborates with the theory that new species can arise as a result of single, small, genetic mutations that have large morphological or physiological effects. Coyne argues that the idea of macromutationism is completely wrong and that Judson’s arguments are fallacious conclusions of basic evo-devo research.

Coyne’s essay is a great read and I recommend it to everyone.

Just in case you need an evo-devo primer the New York Times has a good video by Sean B. Carroll and below is a video by 60 Second Science that does a great job of explaining the field of study.

What is Evo-Devo?