The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection

Bibliographic Data

ID19928355
AuthorsJohn Tyler Bonner (corresponding author)
Year2020
Pages272
Publication date2020-12-08
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueEvolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrinceton University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/j.ctv173f26c
OpenAlexW1554956811
Open LibraryOL34167383M
ISBN9780691222110
LanguageEN
Citations received19

John Tyler Bonner makes a new attack on an old problem: the question of how progressive increase in the size and complexity of animals and plants has occurred. is it, he inquires, an egg turns into an elaborate adult? How is it that a bacterium, given many millions of years, could have evolved into an elephant? The author argues that we can understand this progression in terms of natural selection, but that in order to do so we must consider the role of development--or more precisely the role of life cycles--in evolutionary change. In a lively writing style that will be familiar to readers of his work The Evolution of Culture in Animals (Princeton, 1980), Bonner addresses a general audience interested in biology, as well as specialists in all areas of evolutionary biology. What is novel in the approach used here is the comparison of complexity inside the organism (especially cell differentiation) with the complexity outside (that is, within an ecological community). Matters of size at both these levels are closely related to complexity. The book shows how an understanding of the grand course of evolution can come from combining our knowledge of genetics, development, ecology, and even behavior

Archaeology · Biology · Evolutionary biology · Geography · Natural (archaeology) · Natural selection · Selection (genetic algorithm) · Artificial Intelligence · Computability, Logic, AI Algorithms · Computer Science · Evolution and Science Education · Evolutionary Algorithms and Applications · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · History · Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis · Evolution · Evolution (Biology)

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