scholarly journals Processes and patterns of interaction as units of selection: An introduction to ITSNTS thinking

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (16) ◽  
pp. 4006-4014 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Ford Doolittle ◽  
S. Andrew Inkpen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Biogeochemical Cycles ◽  
The Other ◽  
Units Of Selection ◽  
Biological Hierarchy ◽  
Global Biogeochemical Cycles ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Patterns Of Interaction ◽  
Selection Of

Many practicing biologists accept that nothing in their discipline makes sense except in the light of evolution, and that natural selection is evolution’s principal sense-maker. But what natural selection actually is (a force or a statistical outcome, for example) and the levels of the biological hierarchy (genes, organisms, species, or even ecosystems) at which it operates directly are still actively disputed among philosophers and theoretical biologists. Most formulations of evolution by natural selection emphasize the differential reproduction of entities at one or the other of these levels. Some also recognize differential persistence, but in either case the focus is on lineages of material things: even species can be thought of as spatiotemporally restricted, if dispersed, physical beings. Few consider—as “units of selection” in their own right—the processes implemented by genes, cells, species, or communities. “It’s the song not the singer” (ITSNTS) theory does that, also claiming that evolution by natural selection of processes is more easily understood and explained as differential persistence than as differential reproduction. ITSNTS was formulated as a response to the observation that the collective functions of microbial communities (the songs) are more stably conserved and ecologically relevant than are the taxa that implement them (the singers). It aims to serve as a useful corrective to claims that “holobionts” (microbes and their animal or plant hosts) are aggregate “units of selection,” claims that often conflate meanings of that latter term. But ITSNS also seems broadly applicable, for example, to the evolution of global biogeochemical cycles and the definition of ecosystem function.

scholarly journals El poder subversivo de la fábula en sus diversas manifestaciones diacrónicas

2015 ◽  
pp. 153
Author(s):  
Gordana Matic
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Moral Aspect ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
Selection Of

<div class="WordSection1"><p><strong>Resumen</strong></p><p>La fábula ha tenido desde siempre una función retórica e ilustrativa que se ha manifestado a lo largo de la historia de modo dual: mostraba para enseñar, lo que muchas veces implicaba el componente moralizador, o para criticar. Mientras se empeñaba en conseguir una de las dos intencionalidades, o las dos simultáneamente, ha podido ser revestida de un tono humorístico, burlón, irónico o sarcástico. Partiendo de las observaciones sobre el género de Fedro, Rodríguez Adrados o Mireya Camurati, en este trabajo nos proponemos analizar una selección de fábulas clásicas, medievales, dieciochescas y decimonónicas, para demostrar que el aspecto crítico e incluso subversivo del género se mantiene abiertamente activo aun en las épocas en las que se potencia su intención didáctico-moralizante.</p><p>Palabras clave: fábula, definiciones del género, estudio diacrónico, aspecto crítico, aspecto didáctico-moralizante</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The fable has always had a rhetoric and illustrative function that manifested itself during its long history in two different ways: on one hand, it represented an example in order to teach, which usually implied the moral component, or on the other hand, to criticize. While it strived to achieve one of these intentions, or sometimes both simultaneously, it could have been written in a humorous, mocking, ironic or sarcastic tone. In this paper, we analyze a selection of classical and medieval, 18th and 19th century fables written in Spanish, with definitions proposed by Phaedrus, Rodríguez Adrados and Mireya Camurati as starting points, in order to show that the critical aspect of this genre was openly maintained and taken benefit of even in the historical periods when its didactic and moralizing intention was preferred and strongly emphasized.</p></div><p>Key words: fable, definition of genre, diachronic approach, critical aspect, didactic and moral aspect</p><p> </p>

scholarly journals Periodic Fluctuations in the Numbers of Animals: Their Causes and Effects

1924 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. S. ELTON
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Regions ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Short Period ◽  
Periodic Fluctuations ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
New Mutations

I. Four main points are dealt with :-- (a) The widespread existence of fluctuations in the numbers of animals. (b) The existence, in many birds and mammals, of periodic fluctuations (p.f.). (c) The cause of the latter, which must be some periodic climatic change acting over wide areas. (d) The effects of fluctuations in general, and in particular of the p.f., on the method of evolution and other biological phenomena. 2. A short sketch is given of what is known about short- period climatic cycles (2 to 20 years), and their causes. 3. P.f. of lemmings have an average period of about 3½ years. The maxima in numbers occur synchronously in North America and Europe, and probably all round the arctic regions. The varying hare in Canada has a period of 10 to 11 years. 5. The only regular periods shown by the animals dealt with are the short one of 3½ years and the longer one of 10 to 11 years. The former is probably more marked in the arctic and the other further south. 6. The sandgrouse p.f. point to the existence of an 11-year climatic cycle in the deserts of Central Asia. 7. The effects of these p.f. on evolution must be very great, although at present problematical; but the following suggestions are made :-- (a) Natural selection of some characters must be periodic. (b) There will be different types of natural selection at the maxima and minima of numbers. (c) The struggle for existence, and therefore natural selection, tend to cease temporarily during the rapid expansion in numbers from a minimum, and new mutations have then a chance to get established and spread, i.e. without the aid of natural selection. This might happen only rarely. (d) This would explain the origin and survival of non adaptive characters in a species. (e) On the other hand periodic reduction in numbers will act as an important factor causing uniformity in the species. (f) The opposing factors (c) and (e) will vary much in different species, and the problem will require the combined attentions of mathematicians, and of ecologists working on the methods of regulation of the numbers of animals. (g) This mechanical uniformity factor, since it acts independently of natural selection, explains how a particular structure or habit may evolve, when it only has a general adaptive significance.

scholarly journals Natural selection of visual symmetries

2002 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 422-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter A. van der Helm
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Indirect Test ◽  
Cognitive Evolution ◽  
Selection Hypothesis ◽  
Traditional Definition ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Selection Of

Implicitly, Wynn's target article starts from the transformational definition of symmetry. Unlike his suggestion, this traditional definition and the recent holographic definition are relevant to the discussion on the cognitive evolution of visual symmetries. These definitions reveal underlying properties and, thereby, they support the natural selection hypothesis. The holographic definition even agrees with an indirect test of this hypothesis.

Gesture–speech unity

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McNeill
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Shared Intentionality ◽  
Origin Of Language ◽  
Child Speech ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

This paper outlines an argument for how development in child speech and gesture could shed light on language evolution: child acquisition can be thought of as two types of acquisition, one of which goes extinct (gesture-first, Acquisition 1) and is replaced by another (gesture–speech unity, Acquisition 2). For ontogenesis, this implies that children acquire two languages, one of which is extinct, and which again goes extinct in ontogenesis (it continues as “gestures of silence” rather than as gestures of speech). There is no way to get from Acquisition 1 to Acquisition 2. They are on different tracks. Even when they converge in the same sentence, as they sometimes do, they alternate and do not combine. I propose that the 3~4 year timing of Acquisition 2 relates to the natural selection of a kind of gestural self–response I call “Mead’s Loop”, which took place in a certain psychological milieu at the origin of language. This milieu emerges now in ontogenesis at 3~4 years and with it Mead’s Loop. It is self-aware agency, on which a self-response depends. Other developments, such as theory of mind and shared intentionality, likewise depend on it and also emerge around the same time. The prefrontal cortex, anchoring a ring of language centers in the brain, matures at that point as well, another factor influencing the late timing. On the other hand, a third acquisition, speech evoking adult attachment, begins at (or even before) birth, as shown by a number of studies, and provides continuity through the two acquisitions and extinction.

Epigenomics: The New Science of Functional and Evolutionary Morphology

2003 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Kardong
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Gene Pools ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Evolutionary Morphology ◽  
New Science ◽  
Biological Hierarchy ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractOrganisms are more than the genes that look after their assembly. Chemical and mechanical inputs from the environment, epigenomic (≈epigenetic) cues, also have an effect on the final phenotype. In fact, continued environmental influences on the adult phenotype continue to affect its characteristics. Despite its importance, it is a mistake to turn then to epigenomics as a causative agent of evolutionary modification. Within a biological hierarchy, higher levels result from lower-level processes (genes up to phenotype), and lower levels result from higher-level processes (natural selection of phenotypes down to gene pools), respectively, upward and downward causation. Predictable epigenomic cues are assimilated into the genome. The evolved genome therefore incorporates epigenomic cues or the expectation of their arrival, placing the current genome in the position of determining how much epigenomic information is included, what epigenomic information is incorporated, and when epigenomic information initiates gene expression during morphogenesis of the phenotype. Consequently scientific explanations of changes in phenotypes (e.g., morphological design) are of two kinds, causes and boundary conditions. Causes are the events directly involved in producing changes in the state of a biological system; they act within limits or constraints, the boundary conditions. Confusion between these two types of explanation has misled some to equate epigenomic cues, which are boundary conditions, with natural selection, which is a causative explanation. Such confusion extends outside of biology per se where the consequences of non-equilibrium thermodynamics or chaos complexity unfortunately have been championed for their challenge to biological processes. However, because functional and evolutionary morphology employs analytical tools that describe the boundary conditions set by an integrated adaptation, the discipline is most favourably suited to providing explanations of biological diversity and evolution.

Adaptation

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Reznick ◽  
Joseph Travis
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Cause And Effect ◽  
Evolution By Natural Selection ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Diversity Of Life ◽  
First Time ◽  
Over Time

When Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace proposed their theory of evolution by natural selection, the concepts of evolution and speciation were not new. Darwin introduced The Origin with “An Historical Sketch,” in which he summarized the work of 34 previous authors who had speculated on evolution and the origin of species. What was new about Darwin and Wallace’s proposition was natural selection as the mechanism of evolutionary change. Darwin further proposed that natural selection was a unifying process that accounts for adaptation, for speciation, and hence for the diversity of life on earth. Darwin and Wallace proposed natural selection as a process that caused evolution. Adaptations are features of organisms that were shaped by this process. The modern version of Darwin and Wallace’s theory allows for other agents of evolution, such as genetic drift, migration, and mutation, but adaptation remains a product of natural selection alone. The virtue of their proposal is that it allows us to develop testable hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships between features of the environment and presumed adaptations. Natural selection immediately became a source of controversy, although the nature of the controversy has shifted over time. First, there has been considerable debate about the definition of adaptation (e.g., Reeve and Sherman 1993). We do not wish to add to or summarize this debate because we feel that Darwin got it right the first time. Besides defining a cause-and-effect relationship between selection and adaptation, Darwin emphasized that we should not expect organisms to be perfectly adapted to their environment. In fact, this emphasis was a large component of his argument against divine creation. For example, Darwin recognized, through his experience with artificial selection, that different aspects of morphology were in some way “tied” to one another so that selection on one trait would cause correlated changes in others that were not necessarily adaptive. He also recognized that organisms were subject to constraints that might limit their ability to adapt. Finally, he argued that how organisms evolved was a function of their history, so that the response to selection on the same trait would vary among lineages. A more telling criticism considers the application of cause-and-effect reasoning to the interpretation of features of organisms as adaptations, and hence to the empirical study of adaptation.

scholarly journals Updating Darwin: Information and entropy drive the evolution of life

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 2808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irun R. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
The Other ◽  
Evolution Of Complexity ◽  
Programmed Death ◽  
Evolution Of Life ◽  
The One ◽  
Survival Of The Fittest ◽  
Darwinian Paradigm ◽  
Physical Principles ◽  
Selection Of

The evolution of species, according to Darwin, is driven by struggle – by competition between variant autonomous individuals for survival of the fittest and reproductive advantage; the outcome of this struggle for survival is natural selection. The Neo-Darwinians reframed natural selection in terms of DNA: inherited genotypes directly encode expressed phenotypes; a fit phenotype means a fit genotype – thus the evolution of species is the evolution of selfish, reproducing individual genotypes.  Four general characteristics of advanced forms of life are not easily explained by this Neo-Darwinian paradigm: 1) Dependence on cooperation rather than on struggle, manifested by the microbiome, ecosystems and altruism; 2) The pursuit of diversity rather than optimal fitness, manifested by sexual reproduction; 3) Life’s investment in programmed death, rather then in open-ended survival; and 4) The acceleration of complexity, despite its intrinsic fragility.   Here I discuss two mechanisms that can resolve these paradoxical features; both mechanisms arise from viewing life as the evolution of information. Information has two inevitable outcomes; it increases by autocatalyis and it is destroyed by entropy. On the one hand, the autocalalysis of information inexorably drives the evolution of complexity, irrespective of its fragility. On the other hand, only those strategic arrangements that accommodate the destructive forces of entropy survive – cooperation, diversification, and programmed death result from the entropic selection of evolving species. Physical principles of information and entropy thus fashion the evolution of life.

Metric variations in populations of Carcinus moenas

1941 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Williams ◽  
A. E. Needham
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Natural Selection ◽  
Carapace Length ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Differential Growth ◽  
Moderate Amount ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Striking Fact ◽  
Selection Of

1. Measurements of Carcinus, comparable to those taken by Weldon at Plymouth 40 years ago, have been made on material from three Irish localities, the observations in each area extending over three years. The three localities afford different environments, one having no silt, one a moderate amount and the other much silt.2. The results support the view that the change in the ratio frontal width/ carapace length with increase in body size is due to differential growth in the individual and is not caused, as Weldon supposed, by the continuous removal through natural selection of those crabs with a relatively wide frontal aperture. Measurement on the growth of individuals confirms this view.3. A striking fact which emerged from Weldon's work was that the ratio mentioned above showed a successive diminution in each of the three years covered by the observations. A precisely similar diminution has been found at each of the Irish localities, and it is shown that the annual differences are mathematically significant.4. The results disprove Weldon's hypothesis that the change in the ratio is correlated with the slow accumulation of silt in Plymouth Sound. The Irish locality with most silt has the widest frontal aperture and the intermediate locality the narrowest. It is also shown that the yearly trend towards a lower value for the ratio cannot be continuous, for the rate of change is too rapid to be maintained indefinitely, and the values obtained in the Irish localities overlap those at Plymouth 40 years earlier. Possible explanations of the changes are discussed.5. The differences between populations from the three localities in any year are much less marked than the annual differences at one locality, and are not generally significant. Though small, however, they do show a consistent sequence among the three localities (but not corresponding to the order for siltiness).

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