Evo-Devo: Credo

Credo

1) Organisms and environments define each other. O and E make constructions (Lewontin 1998/2000).

2) Biology limits the options that are presented to selection.

3) Organisms figure out how to use what they have.

4) Metazoans evolve varied, specialized tools for a particular setting (for 540 million years) but on top of a conserved cell metabolism that goes back 2 billion years? Likewise for humans: we make tools that serve our human nature in an infinite variety of environments.

5) Organisms find devious ways around environmental constraints (Lewontin cited in Gerhart & Kirschner, 1997).

6) Mutations occur and new environments become possible.

7) Fitness is reflected by acquisition of new structures and new environments.

8) "Tooth and claw" de-emphasized. Predators and prey often matched evenly because they shaped each other over generations. Most extreme competition is for mates and territory and is within a species. Your greatest enemy and most attractive partners may be someone very much like you!

Notes & Refs:

Lewontin, R. (1998/2000) Triple helix: Gene, organism, environment. Cambridge, MA, Harvard.
Lewontin, R. quoted in Gerhart, John & Kirschner, Marc (1997) Cells, Embryos, and Evolution. Malden, MA: Blackwell, p. 595.

Copyright 2002, James Brody, all rights reserved.

Replies:

There are no replies to this message.

| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |

Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.