Class 12 NEET Biology Evolution Questions Part 2

The term mutation was coined by Hugo de Vries (1901) for large spontaneous inheritable changes which occur suddenly in naturally reproducing population. He also proposed mutation theory of evolution in his book "The Mutation Theory" published in 1903 in which he put forth that evolution occurred due to large discontinuous variations. He worked on Oenothera lamarckiana or evening primrose. During his experiments he found 834 mutations in a population of 54343 plants. It was later on found that the mutations observed by Hugo de Vries were actually chromosomal aberrations.