Directions in the History of Life

Wake, David B.; Connor, Edward F.; Ricqlès, Armand J. de; Dzik, Jerzy; Fisher, Daniel C.; Gould, S. J.; LaBarbera, Michael; Meeter, Duane A.; Mosbrugger, Volker; Reif, Wolf‐Ernst; Rieger, Reinhard M.; Seilacher, Adolf; Wagner, Guilherme

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-70831-2_4

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…The ill-defined sentiment persists. Since Darwin, many other candidates for the "something" have been proposed, including ability to obtain and process information about the environment (Ayala 1974), independence from the environment (Wake et al 1986), energy intensiveness (Vermeij 1987), entropy (Brooks et al 1989;Weber et al 1989;Swenson and Turvey 1991), and others (Fisher 1986;Nitecki 1988;Raup 1988). Given the historical background and the power of culture to penetrate perception, it is reasonable to wonder whether this impression of large-scale directionality is anything more than a mass illusion.…”

Section: What If Anything Is Increasing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For most of the history of evolutionary thought, there has been a near consensus on complexity (McShea 1991). Evolutionists who shared the impression of a general trend include Lamarck (1809), Darwin (1987), Cope (1871) (1893), Huxley (1953), Rensch (1960a,b), Stebbins (1969), Saunders andHo (1976, 1981), Wake et al (1986), Bonner (1988), Ayala (1988), Arthur (1984Arthur ( , 1988, Lewin (1992), Valentine et al (1993), and many others. But in recent decades, some have expressed skepticism, including Williams (1966), Lewontin (1968), Levins and Lewontin (1985), Gould (1985), and Slobodkin (1992), perhaps a sign that the consensus is coming apart.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Perspective: Metazoan Complexity and Evolution: Is There a Trend?

McShea¹

1996

Evolution

184

163

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The notion that complexity increases in evolution is widely accepted, but the best-known evidence is highly impressionistic. Here I propose a scheme for understanding complexity that provides a conceptual basis for objective measurement. The scheme also shows complexity to be a broad term covering four independent types. For each type, I describe some of the measures that have been devised and review the evidence for trends in the maximum and mean. In metazoans as a whole, there is good evidence only for an early-Phanerozoic trend, and only in one type of complexity. For each of the other types, some trends have been documented, but only in a small number of metazoan subgroups.

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Section: What If Anything Is Increasing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perspective: Metazoan Complexity and Evolution: Is There a Trend?

McShea¹

1996

Evolution

184

163

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“…[I]ncreasing complexity is still the conventional wisdom. Clear statements that complexity increases can be found in the work of Stebbins (1969), Denbigh (1975), Papentin (1980), Saunders and Ho (1976;1981), Wake et al (1986), Bonner (1988), and others. And lately the new thermodynamic school of thought has added its voice to the chorus: Wicken (1979;, Brooks and Wiley (1988), and Maze and Scagel (1983) have all argued that complexity ought to and does increase in evolution.…”

Section: Complexity and Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution, Complexity, and Life History Theory

Veit

Gascoigne

Salguero‐Gómez

2023

Preprint

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In this paper, we revisit the long-standing debate of whether there is a pattern in the evolution of organisms towards greater complexity, and how this hypothesis could be tested using an interdisciplinary lens. We argue that this debate remains alive today due to the lack of a quantitative measure of complexity that is related to the teleonomic (i.e. goal-directed) nature of living systems. Further, we argue that such a biological measure of complexity can indeed be found in the vast literature produced within life history theory. We propose that an ideal method to quantify this complexity lays within life history strategies (i.e., schedules of survival and reproduction across an organism's life cycle), as it is precisely these strategies that are under selection to optimise the organism's fitness. In this context, we set an agenda for future steps: (1) how this complexity can be measured mathematically, and (2) how we can engage in a comparative analysis of this complexity across species to investigate the evolutionary forces driving increases or for that matter decreases in teleonomic complexity.

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“…Since Darwin, many other candidates for the "something" have been proposed, including ability to obtain and process information about the environment (Ayala 1974), independence from the environment (Wake et al 1986), energy intensiveness (Vermeij 1987), entropy (Brooks et al 1989;Weber et al 1989;Swenson and Turvey 1991), and others (Fisher 1986;Nitecki 1988;Raup 1988). Given the historical background and the power of culture to penetrate perception, it is reasonable to wonder whether this impression of large-scale directionality is anything more than a mass illusion.…”

Section: What If Anything Is Increasing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evolutionists who shared the impression of a general trend include Lamarck (1809), Darwin (1987), Cope (1871) (1893), Huxley (1953), Rensch (1960a,b), Stebbins (1969), Saunders andHo (1976, 1981), Wake et al (1986), Bonner (1988), Ayala (1988), Arthur (1984Arthur ( , 1988, Lewin (1992), Valentine et al (1993), and many others. But in recent decades, some have expressed skepticism, including Williams (1966), Lewontin (1968), Levins and Lewontin (1985), Gould (1985), and Slobodkin (1992), perhaps a sign that the consensus is coming apart.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Untitled

1996

Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract.-The notion that complexity increases in evolution is widely accepted, but the best-known evidence is highly impressionistic. Here I propose a scheme for understanding complexity that provides a conceptual basis for objective measurement. The scheme also shows complexity to be a broad term covering four independent types. For each type, I describe some of the measures that have been devised and review the evidence for trends. in the maximum and mean. In metazoans as a whole, there is good evidence only for an early-Phanerozoic trend, and only in one type of complexity. For each of the other types, some trends have been documented, but only in a small number of metazoan subgroups.

show abstract

Directions in the History of Life

Cited by 8 publications

References 12 publications

Perspective: Metazoan Complexity and Evolution: Is There a Trend?

Perspective: Metazoan Complexity and Evolution: Is There a Trend?

Evolution, Complexity, and Life History Theory

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