Richard Benedict Goldschmidt (April 12, 1878 – April 24, 1958)
Richard Benedict Goldschmidt was a German born geneticist who is very well known for his work of “The material basis of Evolution” and controversial hypothesis of “Hopeful monsters”.Goldschmidt studied medicine at heidelberg with otto butschli . He worked in Germany for some years and during the second world war he moved to University of California,Berkeley.He has written many books but his magnum opus came in 1940 “The molecular basis of Evolution ” was his biggest contribution to the field of Evo Devo.
Goldschmidt was an unorthodox geneticist who didnot believe in Darwin’s idea of microevolution leading to origin of new species.He observed large gaps between true species which could be accounted by macromutaions, which results in hopeful monsters.If they were hopeful, i.e. if they could lead to viable and adaptive forms rather than “hopeless”, by leading to unadaptive monsters.
In The Material Basis of Evolution, he writes: “The change from species to species is not a change involving more and more additional atomistic changes, but a complete change of the primary pattern or reaction system into a new one, which afterwards may again produce intraspecific variation by micromutation.”
Genetic mechanisms that may explain the emergence of “hopeful monsters” include evolutionary capacitance(The possibility of genetic capacitance has been attributed to prions and heat shock proteins) and homeotic mutaions.
References:
1)The Material Basis of Evolution:Richard Goldschmidt
2)Richard Goldschmidt: hopeful monsters and other ‘heresies’
Michael R. Dietric-Nature Reviews Genetics 4, 68-74 (January 2003)
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