Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution

Author:

Boomsma Jacobus J.1

Affiliation:

1. Professor of Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract

Abstract Evolutionary change is usually incremental and continuous, but some increases in organizational complexity have been radical and divisive. Evolutionary biologists, who refer to such events as “major transitions,” have not always appreciated that these advances were novel forms of pairwise commitment that subjugated previously independent agents. Inclusive fitness theory convincingly explains cooperation and conflict in societies of animals and free-living cells, but to deserve its eminent status it should also capture how major transitions originated: from prokaryote cells to eukaryote cells, via differentiated multicellularity, to colonies with specialized queen and worker castes. As yet, no attempt has been made to apply inclusive fitness principles to the origins of these events. Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution develops the idea that major evolutionary transitions involved new levels of informational closure that moved beyond looser partnerships. Early neo-Darwinians understood this principle, but later social gradient thinking obscured the discontinuity of life’s fundamental organizational transitions. The author argues that the major transitions required maximal kinship in simple ancestors—not conflict reduction in already elaborate societies. Reviewing more than a century of literature, he makes testable predictions, proposing that open societies and closed organisms require very different inclusive fitness explanations. It appears that only human ancestors lived in societies that were already complex before our major cultural transition occurred. We should therefore not impose the trajectory of our own social history on the rest of nature. This thought-provoking text is suitable for graduate-level students taking courses in evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, organismal developmental biology, and evolutionary genetics, as well as professional researchers in these fields. It will also appeal to a broader, interdisciplinary audience, including the social sciences and humanities. Jacobus J. Boomsma is Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Copenhagen.

Publisher

Oxford University PressOxford

Reference1387 articles.

1. How a long-lived fungus keeps mutations in check.;Science,2014

2. Social immunity: the disposable individual.;Current Biology,2018

3. Germline evolution: sequestered cells or immortal strands?;Current Biology,2019

4. Mutation-rate plasticity and the germline of unicellular organisms.;Proceedings of the Royal Society B,2019

5. The evolution of fungus-growing termites and their mutualistic fungal symbionts.;Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America,2002

Cited by 17 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Interplay between gut symbionts and behavioral variation in social insects;Current Opinion in Insect Science;2024-10

2. Altruism and natural selection in a variable environment;Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences;2024-09-10

3. Larger colony sizes favoured the evolution of more worker castes in ants;Nature Ecology & Evolution;2024-08-26

4. Maternal manipulation of offspring size can trigger the evolution of eusociality in promiscuous species;Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences;2024-08-07

5. Connecting and integrating cooperation within and between species;Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences;2024-07-22

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3