Continuous & Discontinuous Variation

Biology: Cambridge International GCSE Supplement, topic 18.1.2

Continuous vs Discontinuous Variation

Variation can be split into two categories:

Continuous variation

Continuous variation

Continuous variation results in a range of phenotypes between two extremes.
E.g. height in humans.

Discontinuous variation

Discontinuous variation

Discontinuous variation results in a limited number of phenotypes with no intermediates.
E.g tongue rolling is either an ability you have, or not.
Discontinuous variation is mostly caused by genes alone.
E.g. A, B, AB, and O blood groups in humans.

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Categories of variation
Properties of discontinuous variation

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