The reason I’ve brought it up here is the clear suggestion that epigenetic mechanisms were at work: change in climate/environment leads to adaptation and innovation – there must have been major anatomical adjustments to allow for the switch from tree-dweller to grassland runner – and these all prove to be hereditary in the long-term. Another step closer to Shapiro, then?

Bats have speciated rapidly in the past 15 million years. It raises the question suggested here: do epigenetic mechanisms lead to punctuated equilibrium?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uoma-sbs112311.php