Wow. In a world dominated by Darwinism, it’s amazing that anyone dares to tell this story:
If you had braved the jungles of China’s Fujian province in the early 20th century, various accounts say you could have witnessed a stunningly unexpected animal: a blue tiger. These tigers were described as “marvelously beautiful” with bodies “a deep shade of Maltese, changing into almost deep blue on the under parts.” As late as the 1950s, hunters reported spotting their blue hairs alongside the traditional orange fur of other South China tigers on trails. Then the blue tigers disappeared. The last reported sighting was in 1953, and blue tigers were soon the stuff of legends, with not so much as a preserved hide to prove they ever existed. It is tempting to think the cats’ blueness was tied to some flaw that left them unable to compete with their bright orange kin. But it’s more likely their bizarre coats had nothing to do with their extinction; it was simply bad luck that the color arose in a small population that continued to shrink.
Christie Wilcox, “How Neutral Theory Altered Ideas About Biodiversity” at Quanta
So it wasn’t a strong signal but it was a signal.
Imagine all the theories that Darwinians could indulge in as to why blue tigers are more fit…
I remember a U of T prof, Larry Moran, who used to comment at this site, saying he thought neutral theory made more sense. He’s probably right.