On Twitter where I originally found it someone actually did mention Dawkins in comments to this article!
@cjd So seems like Dawkins made a hypothesis, and it has been now demonstrated experimentally.
@kravietz
Yup, that was my interpretation of it too, pretty cool.
@cjd @kravietz skeptical of this. Not sure much time his book spends on RNA world, and the idea of an RNA world is pretty old https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world#History oldest mention from 1962. Seems likely they were thinking RNA sequences(/complexes) evolved.
@kravietz
Before Darwin it wasn't Darwinian.
Before Darwin it wasn't Darwinian.
@kravietz
I believe this hypothesis was put forth by Dawkins in The Selfish Gene. Makes sense to me.