6. The long lag time (over 12,000 generations) between the historical contingency (potentiating mutation) in the largest experiment disproves Lenski's implicit assumption that the potentiating mutation likely occurred in proximity with the occurrence of the Cit<sup>+</sup> variant, and that the first occurrence of the Cit<sup>+</sup> variant in the Third Experiment at the 20,000th generation somehow implies that a potentiating mutation occurred in its proximity. | 6. The long lag time (over 12,000 generations) between the historical contingency (potentiating mutation) in the largest experiment disproves Lenski's implicit assumption that the potentiating mutation likely occurred in proximity with the occurrence of the Cit<sup>+</sup> variant, and that the first occurrence of the Cit<sup>+</sup> variant in the Third Experiment at the 20,000th generation somehow implies that a potentiating mutation occurred in its proximity. |