CHAPTER 8 Canalization, Cryptic Variation, and Developmental Buffering A Critical Examination and Analytical Perspective

This chapter focuses on assessing canalization and cryptic genetic variation. Regardless of the concerns with the mechanistic explanation of genetic assimilation, the plausibility of the phenomena of genetic assimilation as well as the existence of cryptic genetic variation were established via some empirical experiments. Waddington demonstrated that traits that were invariant under most (normal) environmental circumstances could be sensitized …