New thinking about biological evolution

Abstract

The article focuses on the active role of the organism in the subsequent evolution of its descendants. Choice, control of the environment, adaptability, and mobility all play their part. This growth area in biology and other active centres of research on epigenetics and different forms of inheritance are re‐invigorating evolutionary biology. Many evolutionary biologists have taken the view that an understanding of development is irrelevant to theories of evolution. However, the integration of several disciplines now suggests that the orthodoxy is misplaced. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2014, 112, 268–275.

Origin of termite eusociality: trophallaxis integrates the social, nutritional, and microbial environments

“…This transition scenario is not only fully compatible with cockroach physiology in a nitrogen‐limited environment (Nalepa, , ), but also allows for the increase in colony size that subsequently favours the appearance of a dependent, sterile, defensive caste (Higashi et al, ; Nalepa, ). Behavioural changes can be powerful forces in the social and nutritional environments, with evolutionary outcomes easily acquiring a runaway property (Crespi, ; Bateson, ). An evolutionary cascade precipitated by the onset of alloparental care in the termite ancestor can result in not only a morphologically distinct soldier caste, but also in life history characters specific to termites, including a small body size, fragile morphotype, and extreme phenotypic plasticity (Fig.…”

What kind of evolutionary biology suits cultural research?

“…As it includes works that describe the role of agency and further details of a non-Darwinian mechanism of adaptation (incl. Bateson 2014;Kull 2014;etc. ), it has a direct bearing on the turn in evolutionary biology.…”

Why are individuals so different from each other?

“…Since Darwin (1871) first proposed it, the role of choice in the evolution of descendants has been increasingly recognised (Bateson, 2014). The organism can also do a great deal to create an environment to which it is best suited (Lewontin, 1983).…”

“…In this article, I shall not go over ground that I have covered in detail in previous publications (for example, Bateson, 2012Bateson, , 2014. I shall however consider briefly the plastic mechanisms that enable an organism to cope with a novel challenge not previously encountered by the organism's ancestors.…”