Dr. Dr. Rolf Beilharz, LINDSAY FALVEY, Editor
2026
The book outlines a major geneticist's life work of fitness. It critiques the overemphasis of quantitative genetics on heritability, directional dominance, gene interactions, inbreeding depression and heterosis. It observes that approach as producing the poor outcomes in reproduction and survival as a result of genetic interactions and inbreeding depression. These points are amplified to illustrate how some geneticists see the problem but, in looking only at genes, miss the big picture. Considering the animal as a whole provides a much more realistic understanding that resources are limiting for most animals including farmed livestock and that this results in trade-offs when selecting for a specific attribute. By properly understanding natural selection in wild as well as domestic animals, Darwin's original thesis is shown to remain true. The book aims to encourage geneticists and livestock breeders to broaden their focus to the whole animal, which then leads to understanding that natural selection, largely determined by the animal's environment, determines evolutionary outcomes. The applications extend beyond genetics and breeding to science-based animal welfare.
Read this work at the World Public Library (library card needed).