The Evolutionary Errors of X-Men
In X-Men: First Class , the latest film about the popular comic book superheroes, one of the mutant characters goes by the nickname Darwin because he has the power of “reactive evolution.” He instantly adapts to any threat: toss him in water and he sprouts gills; hit him with a club and his skin turns to armored plates.Biology mavens in the audience may object that this form of evolution is more or less the opposite of what Charles Darwin proposed with his theory of natural selection. If anything, the mutant’s abilities are more in line with the rival, disproved theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , who argued for the heritability of acquired characteristics. But maybe the name "Lamarck" would sound too much like a maitre d' rather than a mutant to fans. [More]