These are quotes from New Scientist, Sept 28, 2002 edition. The article is not available online. In essence it suggests that animals can store mutations for many generations, and then activate them at a time when evolution might be necessary (ie just after a catastrophe). Related animals would all evolve in the same manner.

• By squirrelling away genetic mutations, the raw material of evolution, and releasing them all at once, species may be able to leap from peak to evolutionary peak without ever having to slog through the valleys between.

• The lead actor in this iconoclastic drama is a so-called "chaperone" protein called hsp90 [a heat shock protein].

• But when the researchers looked more closely at their abnormal flies...each set of parents tended to produce offspring with a distinctive set of abnormalities.

• They suggested that the familial abnormalities were caused by "cryptic" genetic defects that had lain hidden for generations and showed up when hsp90 stopped doing its job.

• The upshot of this is that species seem to have a mechanism fro delivering variation - the raw material of evolution - just at the time they need to adapt to a changing environment.