Modular Evolution: How Natural Selection Produces Biological Complexity

by Lucio Vinicius

Overview

Natural selection is more than the survival of the fittest: it is a force engendering higher biological complexity. Presenting a new explanation for the tendency of life to become more complex through evolution, this book offers an introduction to the key debates in evolutionary theory, including the role of genes and sex in evolution, the adaptive reasons for senescence and death and the origin of neural information. The author argues that biological complexity increased through the process of ‘modularity transfer': modular phenotypes (proteins, somatic cells, learned behaviours) evolved into new modular information carriers (regulatory proteins, neural cells, words), giving rise to new information systems and higher levels of biological organisation. Modular Evolution makes sense of the unique place of humans in evolution, both as the pinnacle of biological complexity and inventors of non-biological evolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521728775
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/15/2010
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Lucio Vinicius is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies in Cambridge, UK. He has published articles in various fields including life history evolution, Drosophila genetics, brain evolution and human growth.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 From natural selection to the history of nature 1

Nature after natural law 2

Reductionism and emergence 4

History and inheritance 7

Darwinian progress: order at the macroevolutionary scale 10

Macroevolution as history 12

Contingency as the startling consensus 15

Convergence 18

The denial of 'progress': Darwinism's prejudice against Darwin 20

Biological complexity and information 22

Organisms as DNA programs 25

Major transitions: the aggregational mode of evolution 27

Convergent aggregation, levels of selection and levels of organisation 30

The evolution of biological order 32

The evolution of order: macroevolutionary consequences 35

2 From the units of inheritance to the origin of species 38

The gene as the module of inheritance 40

The fundamental principle of natural selection 43

Gradualism: the cost of biological complexity 46

The adaptive walk in the real world 51

Epistasis as a main legacy of particulate inheritance 55

The shifting balance and the structure of real populations 58

Sex and the origins of species 60

Speciation as adaptation: the evolution of xenophobia 62

Speciation as an accident 65

Speciation and particulate inheritance 67

Levels of selection 69

3 Multicellularity and the developmental code 72

Replication and reproduction 75

Gene expression 77

Multicellularity and the developmental code 79

From gene expression to morphological pattern 82

Regulatory regions and gene bureaucracy 84

Is evolution mostly the evolution of regulatory regions? 86

Modularity and microevolution 90

The gradual evolution of homeotic mutations 93

The origin of animal phyla 97

The challenge of multicellularity 99

4 Life cycle evolution: life and death of the soma 102

Weismann's two insights 104

Fisher's second fundamental principle 106

Medawar and accidental death 109

Williams and the logic of trade-offs 111

Hamiltion: senescence beyond mortality and the return of the killer genes 114

Growth and fitness 117

The reproduction of soma: energy, time and trade-offs 119

The end of reproduction: menopause and senescence 122

Free radicals and molecular signalling 124

Conclusion: multicellularity and the life cycle 126

5 Sex and its consequences: the transition that never happened 128

The misleading cost of sex 132

Advantage of genetic exchange 134

The origin of separate sexes 137

Too many males 140

Sexual selection 143

Why sexual dimorphism? 144

Male ornaments as accidents 147

Ornaments: animal signals of fitness 149

The phylogeny of sex and asex 150

Sex and biological complexity 152

6 Animal societies: the case of incomplete evolutionary transitions 154

The problem of co-operation 158

Relatedness as the origin of true altruism 160

Limitations of kin selection theory 165

Selfish co-operation: an eye for an eye, a helping hand for a helping hand 168

The conditions for selfish co-operation 171

The birth of the selfless ape 173

Scratching the strong reciprocator 179

Conclusion: animal societies and biological complexity 183

7 The new 'Chain of Being': hierarchical evolution and biological complexity 186

Thermodynamics versus biological information 187

Schrödinger's Principle and the evolution of order 188

The historical transformation of selection 197

The hierarchical nature of macroevolution 201

Historical humans: the technological code and the end of evolution 203

Hierarchical evolution and the roots of Darwinism 205

References 208

Index 233

Editorial Reviews

"Readers will be well rewarded by the nice representation of both sides of each controversial topic and the fresh perspective on biological complexity, especially those interested in an evolutionary perspective of development. Highly recommended."
J.E. Platz, Creighton University for Choice Magazine

"I found Modular Evolution to be interesting and informative... This book encourages us to continue to evaluate what we consider a "major transition" with an eye towards understanding the important development and evolutionary mechanisms that have led to complex and diverse phenotypes."
Tami Cruickshank, Evolution & Development

"Each chapter introduction artfully sets the stage, biologically and historically, with the subject discussed in a flowing, chronological fashion. The conclusions generally summarize the material and introduce the reader to the next chapter. Modular Evolution is a fascinating book that dives into current topics in evolutionary biology while offering an intriguing framework for understanding biological complexity."
Anit Raja Banerjee, Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine

"The central five chapters of the book offer concise introductions into several key debates in evolutionary biology linked to different levels of biological organization and offer stimulating food for thought even for those readers who are not convinced by the author's general perspective."
Gerhard Schlosser, Quarterly Review of Biology

From the Publisher