Morphs

Mutations and crossing-over provide much of the raw material for evolution. Critics of the modern theory of evolution often point out that since mutation and crossing-over are largely random events they can not contribute to the evolution of such complex and highly ordered structures as are founf in living systems. With a simple program, in his book "The Blind Watchmaker", Richard Dawkins showed how powerful a force random mutations could be in the creation of highly complex structures. Unfortunately, Dawkins used only the properties of mutations to evolve his creatures. In 1997 Alain Gogniat wrote a Java based version of this program that not only used random mutations, but also included crossing-over between chromosomes. With Alain's permission I have modified this applet to reduce the number of parameters that the user can control.

To run the program click in the box below

Run Program

This program runs best using Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

E. William Wischusen

30 January, 2002