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The role of metaphor in sha** scientific inquiry
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Article
Open AccessDid Human Culture Emerge in a Cultural Evolutionary Transition in Individuality?
Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality (ETI) have been responsible for the major transitions in levels of selection and individuality in natural history, such as the origins of prokaryotic and eukaryotic ce...
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Open AccessThe Gonium pectorale genome demonstrates co-option of cell cycle regulation during the evolution of multicellularity
The transition to multicellularity has occurred numerous times in all domains of life, yet its initial steps are poorly understood. The volvocine green algae are a tractable system for understanding the geneti...
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Evolutionary Transitions in Individuality and Recent Models of Multicellularity
An evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI) is a fundamental shift in the unit of adaptation. ETIs occur through the evolution of groups of individuals into a new higher-level individual. The evolution o...
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Group Selection and Group Adaptation During a Major Evolutionary Transition: Insights from the Evolution of Multicellularity in the Volvocine Algae
Adaptations can occur at different hierarchical levels (e.g., cells and multicellular organisms), but it can be difficult to identify the level(s) of adaptation in specific cases. A major problem is that selec...
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Article
Levels of selection and the formal Darwinism project
Understanding good design requires addressing the question of what units undergo natural selection, thereby becoming adapted. There is, therefore, a natural connection between the formal Darwinism project (whi...
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Article
Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality
Arising from M. A. Nowak, C. E. Tarnita & E. O. Wilson Nature 466, 1057–1062 (2010)10.1038/nature09205; Nowak et al. reply
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Inclusive fitness in evolution
Arising from M. A. Nowak, C. E. Tarnita & E. O. Wilson Nature 466, 1057–1062 (2010)10.1038/nature09205; Nowak et al. reply
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Philosophical foundations for the hierarchy of life
We review Evolution and the Levels of Selection by Samir Okasha. This important book provides a cohesive philosophical framework for understanding levels-of-selections problems in biology. Concerning evolutionary...
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On the transfer of fitness from the cell to the multicellular organism
The fitness of any evolutionary unit can be understood in terms of its two basic components: fecundity (reproduction) and viability (survival). Trade-offs between these fitness components drive the evolution o...
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Cooperation and conflict in the evolution of multicellularity
Multicellular organisms probably originated as groups of cells formed in several ways, including cell proliferation from a group of founder cells and aggregation. Cooperation among cells benefits the group, bu...
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Fitness and Evolutionary Explanation: A Response
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Fitness and evolutionary explanation
Recent philosophical discussions have failed to clarify the roles of the concept fitness in evolutionary theory. Neither the propensity interpretation of fitness nor the construal of fitness as a primitive the...
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On fitness and adaptedness and their role in evolutionary explanation
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Coefficients of relatedness in sociobiology
A much-discussed, quantitative criterion for the spread of an altruistic gene is Hamilton's rule1,2c/b < R (1) where c and b are additive decrement and increment to fitness of altruist and recipient, respectively...
