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Major Transitions (defn)
fundamental changes in the evolution of life
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Major Transitions (list)
- self-replication and heredity
- RNA to DNA and proteins
- origin of first (eukaryotic) cells
- sexual reproduction
- multicellularity from unicellular ancestors
- developmental complexity in multicellularity
- individuality (gametes)
- groups/complex societies
- eusocial societies, division of labor
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Features of major transitions
- Individuals (“pretransition individuals”) give up the ability to reproduce independently, and they join together to form a larger grouping (“posttransition individual”) that shares reproduction
- Once individuals aggregate into higher-level groupings, they can take advantage of economies of scale and efficiencies of specialization
- Aggregation and specialization facilitate changes in information technologies. Organisms develop new and increasingly efficient ways to acquire, process, transmit, and store information
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