discontinuous variation

American  

noun

Biology.

1. variation in phenotypic traits in which types are grouped into discrete categories with few or no intermediate phenotypes.

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Example Sentences

Mendel worked instead with traits that show discontinuous variation.

From Textbooks • Apr. 25, 2013

I think I have demolished "discontinuous variation" as having any but the most subordinate part in evolution of species.

From Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 2 by Marchant, James

On the basis of the discontinuous variation in several characters which correlate with the disjunct distribution of the two populations, two subspecies of Hyla staufferi are recognized.

From The Systematics of the Frogs of the Hyla Rubra Group in Middle America by león, Juan R.

The next letter relates to the rising school of biologists who, in opposition to Darwin's views, held that species might arise by what was at the time termed "discontinuous variation."

From Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences, Vol. 2 by Marchant, James

Suppose that evolution "in the open" had taken place in the same way, by means of discontinuous variation.

From A Critique of the Theory of Evolution by Morgan, Thomas Hunt