Wiktionary
n. A large-scale mutation.
Usage examples of "macromutation".
But it was a digression, because the theory of punctuated equilibria is the main topic of this chapter, and that theory in truth has no connection with macromutation and true saltation.
As we saw in Chapter 1, this is an entirely false analogy to apply to natural selection, but it is a very good analogy for the idea of certain kinds of macromutation giving rise to evolutionary change.
They are only macromutations if we look, naively, at the finished product, the adult.
People called saltationists believe that macromutations are a means by which major jumps in evolution could take place in a single generation.
The biomorphs of Chapter 3 frequently show macromutations of the Stretched DC8 variety.
The 'complexity argument' against saltatory evolution does not apply to Stretched DC8 macromutations because, if we look in detail at the nature of the change involved, they are in a real sense not true macromutations at all.