‘Biogeneric’ developmental processes: drivers of major transitions in animal evolution

'Biogeneric' developmental processes: drivers of major transitions in animal evolution.

Using three examples drawn from animal systems, I advance the hypothesis that major transitions in multicellular evolution often involved the constitution of new cell-based materials with unprecedented morphogenetic capabilities. I term the materials and formative processes that arise when highly evolved cells are incorporated into mesoscale matter 'biogeneric', to reflect their commonality wit...

Key transitions in animal evolution.

In order to address this subject further and to assess progress in the examination of animal origins and transitions, an international group of scientists was convened at the Society for Comparative Biology meeting in January 2007.

The Major Transitions in Evolution

Major Transitions in Language Evolution

Language is the most important evolutionary invention of the last few million years. How human language evolved from animal communication is a challenging question for evolutionary biology. In this paper we use mathematical models to analyze the major transitions in language evolution. We begin by discussing the evolution of coordinated associations between signals and objects in a population. ...

Major transitions in human evolution.

Evolutionary problems are often considered in terms of 'origins', and research in human evolution seen as a search for human origins. However, evolution, including human evolution, is a process of transitions from one state to another, and so questions are best put in terms of understanding the nature of those transitions. This paper discusses how the contributions to the themed issue 'Major tr...