Metazoan Complexity and Evolution: Is There a Trend?

Daniel W. McShea

Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: The notion that complexity increases in evolution is widely accepted, but the best-known evidence is highly impressionistic. In this paper, I propose a scheme for understanding complexity which provides a conceptual basis for objective measurement. The Scheme also shows complexity to be a composite 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 metasoan subgroups.

Key words. complexity, trends, hierarchy, Metazoa, macroevolution

Date: 1996-01
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:safiwp:96-01-002

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