Chance and necessity: the evolution of morphological complexity and diversity

Sean B. Carroll ()
Additional contact information
Sean B. Carroll: Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Nature, 2001, vol. 409, issue 6823, 1102-1109

Abstract: Abstract The primary foundation for contemplating the possible forms of life elsewhere in the Universe is the evolutionary trends that have marked life on Earth. For its first three billion years, life on Earth was a world of microscopic forms, rarely achieving a size greater than a millimetre or a complexity beyond two or three cell types. But in the past 600 million years, the evolution of much larger and more complex organisms has transformed the biosphere. Despite their disparate forms and physiologies, the evolution and diversification of plants, animals, fungi and other macroforms has followed similar global trends. One of the most important features underlying evolutionary increases in animal and plant size, complexity and diversity has been their modular construction from reiterated parts. Although simple filamentous and spherical forms may evolve wherever cellular life exists, the evolution of motile, modular mega-organisms might not be a universal pattern. “Drawn out of the realm of pure chance, the accident enters into that of necessity, of the most implacable certainties.” J. Monod1

Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/35059227 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:409:y:2001:i:6823:d:10.1038_35059227

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/35059227

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().