Galton documented the phenomena of regression to the mean in inheritance of height in the 1870s. (The children of two tall parents tended to be tall, but shorter than the parents. The children of two short parents tended to be short, but taller than the parents.) Similar phenomena were documented in a wide variety of species, as well as more complex variations. All of this lead to a belief that there was such a thing as a "natural type" which a species or race returned to, which cast doubt on Darwin's theories for several decades.
After Mendelian genetics was rediscovered in the early 1900s, Fisher explained the phenomena from population genetics. Once the results of the breeding experiments were explained by genetics and statistics, we could reconcile field observations about inheritance with Darwin's theory.
Thank you for the follow-up; I figured it was either a mistake and very simple, or not a mistake and with crucial information missing. The extra information cleared that up :)
Galton documented the phenomena of regression to the mean in inheritance of height in the 1870s. (The children of two tall parents tended to be tall, but shorter than the parents. The children of two short parents tended to be short, but taller than the parents.) Similar phenomena were documented in a wide variety of species, as well as more complex variations. All of this lead to a belief that there was such a thing as a "natural type" which a species or race returned to, which cast doubt on Darwin's theories for several decades.
After Mendelian genetics was rediscovered in the early 1900s, Fisher explained the phenomena from population genetics. Once the results of the breeding experiments were explained by genetics and statistics, we could reconcile field observations about inheritance with Darwin's theory.