… When a gene mutates into one of its synonyms, you might as well not bother to call it a mutation at all. Indeed, it isn’t a mutation, as far as the consequences on the body are concerned. And for the same reason it isn’t a mutation at all as far as natural selection is concerned. But it is a mutation as far as molecular geneticists are concerned, for they can see it using their methods.
And then writes
Dawkins doubts that any mutation giving rise to a visible phenotype can be neutral (“ultra-Darwinists like me incline against the idea”). Such mutations are only important in molecular evolution.
Maybe this is accurate as to what Dawkins believes, but it sure doesn’t follow from the Dawkins quote. Dawkins is talking about silent mutations, so Moran’s discussion of Dawkins’s view of phenotype-altering mutations is a non sequitur.
Moran quotes Dawkins:
And then writes
Maybe this is accurate as to what Dawkins believes, but it sure doesn’t follow from the Dawkins quote. Dawkins is talking about silent mutations, so Moran’s discussion of Dawkins’s view of phenotype-altering mutations is a non sequitur.
Moran is quoting this page of Greatest Show on Earth