Social evolution and the what, when, why and how of the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life

Social evolution and the what, when, why and how of the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life PDF Author: Peter Nonacs
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832512119
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description

Social evolution and the what, when, why and how of the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life

Social evolution and the what, when, why and how of the major evolutionary transitions in the history of life PDF Author: Peter Nonacs
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
ISBN: 2832512119
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 154

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Book Description


The Major Transitions in Evolution

The Major Transitions in Evolution PDF Author: John Maynard Smith
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019850294X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
During evolution there have been several major changes in the way genetic information is organized and transmitted from one generation to the next. These transitions include the origin of life itself, the first eukaryotic cells, reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies. This is the first book to discuss all these major transitions and their implications for our understanding of evolution.Clearly written and illustrated with many original diagrams, this book will be welcomed by students and researchers in the fields of evolutionary biology, ecology, and genetics.

The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited

The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited PDF Author: Brett Calcott
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262294532
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
Drawing on recent advances in evolutionary biology, prominent scholars return to the question posed in a pathbreaking book: how evolution itself evolved. In 1995, John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry published their influential book The Major Transitions in Evolution. The "transitions" that Maynard Smith and Szathmáry chose to describe all constituted major changes in the kinds of organisms that existed but, most important, these events also transformed the evolutionary process itself. The evolution of new levels of biological organization, such as chromosomes, cells, multicelled organisms, and complex social groups radically changed the kinds of individuals natural selection could act upon. Many of these events also produced revolutionary changes in the process of inheritance, by expanding the range and fidelity of transmission, establishing new inheritance channels, and developing more open-ended sources of variation. Maynard Smith and Szathmáry had planned a major revision of their work, but the death of Maynard Smith in 2004 prevented this. In this volume, prominent scholars (including Szathmáry himself) reconsider and extend the earlier book's themes in light of recent developments in evolutionary biology. The contributors discuss different frameworks for understanding macroevolution, prokaryote evolution (the study of which has been aided by developments in molecular biology), and the complex evolution of multicellularity.

Principles of Social Evolution

Principles of Social Evolution PDF Author: Andrew F.G. Bourke
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019923115X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Investigates and sets out the common principles of social evolution operating across all taxa and levels of biological organisation.

The Social Evolution of Human Nature

The Social Evolution of Human Nature PDF Author: Harry Smit
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107055199
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
Harry Smit examines the elements of current evolutionary theory and how they bear on the evolution of the human mind.

The Codes of Life

The Codes of Life PDF Author: Marcello Barbieri
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402063407
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
Building on a range of disciplines – from biology and anthropology to philosophy and linguistics – this book draws on the expertise of leading names in the study of organic, mental and cultural codes brought together by the emerging discipline of biosemiotics. The volume represents the first multi-authored attempt to deal with the range of codes relevant to life, and to reveal the ubiquitous role of coding mechanisms in both organic and mental evolution.

Comparative Social Evolution

Comparative Social Evolution PDF Author: Dustin R. Rubenstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108132634
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
Darwin famously described special difficulties in explaining social evolution in insects. More than a century later, the evolution of sociality - defined broadly as cooperative group living - remains one of the most intriguing problems in biology. Providing a unique perspective on the study of social evolution, this volume synthesizes the features of animal social life across the principle taxonomic groups in which sociality has evolved. The chapters explore sociality in a range of species, from ants to primates, highlighting key natural and life history data and providing a comparative view across animal societies. In establishing a single framework for a common, trait-based approach towards social synthesis, this volume will enable graduate students and investigators new to the field to systematically compare taxonomic groups and reinvigorate comparative approaches to studying animal social evolution.

Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution

Domains and Major Transitions of Social Evolution PDF Author: Jacobus J. Boomsma
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191063215
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
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, behavioural 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.

The Evolution of Social Wasps

The Evolution of Social Wasps PDF Author: James H. Hunt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190294647
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Social behavior occurs in some of the smallest animals as well as some the largest, and the transition from solitary life to sociality is an unsolved evolutionary mystery. In The Evolution of Social Wasps, James H. Hunt examines social behavior in a single lineage of insects, wasps of the family Vespidae. He presents empirical knowledge of social wasps from two approaches, one that focuses on phylogeny and life history and one that focuses on individual ontogeny, colony development, and population dynamics. He also provides an extensive summary of the existing literature while demonstrating how it can be clouded by theory. Hunt's fresh approach to the conflicting literature on sociality highlights how oft repeated models can become fixed in the thinking of the scientific community. Instead, Hunt presents a mechanistic scenario for the evolution of sociality in wasps that changes our perspective on kin selection, the paradigm that has dominated thinking about social evolution since the 1970s. This innovative new model integrates life history, nutrition, fitness and ecology in which social insect biologists will find a rich storehouse of ideas and information, and behavioral ecologists will find a bracing challenge to long accepted models. Engagingly written, bold, and provocative, The Evolution of Social Wasps marks a milestone in our understanding of one of lifes major evolutionary transitions - the origin of social behavior.

Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms

Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms PDF Author: Nils Anthes
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642026249
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
This up-to-date review examines key areas of animal behaviour, including communication, cognition, conflict, cooperation, sexual selection and behavioural variation. Various tests are covered, including recent empirical examples.