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discontinuous variation

American  

noun

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


Example Sentences

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Mendel worked instead with traits that show discontinuous variation.

From Textbooks Apr. 25, 2013

Such a continuous change cannot be explained by a discontinuous variation, i.e. a mutation.

From Hormones and Heredity by J. T. Cunningham

As compared with the normal Flat-fish they arise by a discontinuous variation, they are mutations, whereas the normal Flat-fish as compared with its symmetrical ancestor arises by a continuous change.

From Hormones and Heredity by J. T. Cunningham

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 Juan R. león

This seems crude when stated with archaic frankness but becomes plausible if paraphrased in modern language as "discontinuous variation and the spontaneous origin of definite species."

From Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 1 by Sir Charles Eliot

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