The major transitions in evolution外文电子书籍.pdf

13. The maj or transitions in evolution 1 13. The major transitions in evolution Until the mid of the 19th century, natural history was dominated by a view that postulates a progressive development that started with non-living material and progressed from plants over simple to more elaborate animals. Lamarck postulated that all living beings would have an inherent tendency to climb a ladder of progression. Charles Darwin disagreed on this notion. Rather than having an intrinsic tendency for progression, the processes of mutation and selection lead to organisms that are well adapted to their environment. Today evolutionary biologists are aware of the fact that bacteria are not less successful in their environment than e.g. humans, nor are they less well adapted. However, without doubt some organisms are more complex than others. Again, there is neither any theoretical reason to expect, nor any true empirical evidence, that evolutionary lineages increase in complexity. Yet some taxa are more complex than others, e.g. eukaryotes are obviously more complex than prokaryotes (Figure 13.1). John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmary developed the fruitful idea that increases in complexity may have achieved as a result of a series of major evolutionary transitions, which involved changes in the way information is stored and transmitted.4 1 13.1. What is a major transition? Complexity as information As said above, an increase in complexity is not a universal or inevitable evolutionary