I am not a biologist but biologists have discussed the idea that phenotype changes can occur without genotype change, since a long time. Although genotype inar

I am not a biologist but biologists have discussed the idea that phenotype changes can occur without genotype change, since a long time. Although genotype inarguably influences the development and expression of phenotype, selective forces ultimately operate on phenotypes. The concept of genetic canalization addresses the extent to which an organism's phenotype allows conclusions about its genotype. A phenotype is said to be canalized if mutations (changes in the genome) do not noticeably affect the physical properties of the organism. This means that a canalized phenotype may form from a large variety of different genotypes. If canalization is not present, small changes in the genome have an immediate effect on the phenotype that develops. [3] Mary Jane West-Eberhard famously told "“The 20th century has been called the century of the gene, the 21st century promises to be the century of the environment.” ... ” Darwin, who didn’t even know genes existed, had it right, he left open the possibility that new traits could arise because of environmental influence." [1] An example of such epigenetic and heritable trait changed in morphology without change in DNA is here [2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jane_West-Eberhard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jane_West-Eberhard [1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-the-tree-frog-has-redefined-our-view-of-biology-165716397/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-the-tree-f... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12483213 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12483213 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genotype%E2%80%93phenotype_distinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genotype%E2%80%93phenotype_dis...