"Orchids were not made by an ideal engineer; they are jury-rigged from a limited set of available components."
"There is no gene "for" such unambiguous bits of morphology as your left kneecap or your fingernail. [...] Hundreds of genes contribute to the building of most body parts and their action is channeled through a kaleidoscopic series of environmental influences: embryonic and postnatal, internal and external. Parts are not translated genes, and selection doesn't even work directly on parts."
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Source: Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History”, p.91, W. W. Norton & Company
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