Frozen Evolution. Or, that’s not the way it is, Mr. Darwin. A Farewell to Selfish Gene.

In a great many situations, developmental plasticity can be useful even if it only generates intra-species phenotype variability randomly, without direct connection to the conditions under which the particular individual develops.In this case, the species can utilize several developmental programs, between which every individual switches quite randomly in a certain stage of its ontogenesis, without any connection to the external conditions.As the resultant population will then consist of individuals with different phenotypes, provision will be made for better use of the resources that the population has available in the environment and intraspecies competition amongst individuals in the population will be substantially reduced.The fact that phenotype differences are not determined genetically simultaneously ensures that the differences are not heredity and that the momentarily more advantageous phenotype in the population will not predominate through natural selection, i.e. will not permanently force out the temporarily less advantageous phenotype.