ABSTRACT
The discovery of genetic drift Classical Darwinian views, as is well known, are based on two pillars: random hereditary variability (Chapter 2) and natural selection, which traditionally was considered the driving force leading to adaptations and, hence, a nonrandom factor. At the time of the rediscovery of Mendel’s laws and the establishment of genetics, little was known about hereditary variability and little direct evidence of natural selection was available. Not surprisingly many early geneticists were initially quite skeptical about Darwin’s hypothesis and believed that genetics alone would be sufficient to explain evolution. Steadily the situation began to change, and the first sign of this change was the emergence of the Hardy-Weinberg Principle (HWP) which became a solid foundation for understanding population processes (Hardy 1908; Weinberg 1908). However, the gestation period took some time and population genetics, as a well-defined discipline, appeared only in the late 1920s (see Box 6.1).
