2024/12/01 by Pierrick Bourrat, Péter Takács, Guilhem Doulcier +4 · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Social Sciences · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
paper · pdf · doi:10.1002/ece3.70661
openalex publication_date 2024/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
The evolution of complex life forms, exemplified by multicellular organisms, can be traced through a series of evolutionary transitions in individuality, beginning with the origin of life, followed by the emergence of the eukaryotic cell, and, among other transitions, culminating in the shift from unicellularity to multicellularity. Several attempts have been made to explain the origins of such transitions, many of which have been internalist (i.e., based largely on internal properties of ancestral entities). Here, we show how externalist perspectives can shed new light on questions pertaining to evolutionary transitions in individuality. We do this by presenting the ecological scaffolding framework in which properties of complex life forms arise from an external scaffold. Ultimately, we anticipate that progress will come from recognition of the importance of both the internalist and externalist modes of explanation. We illustrate this by considering an extension of the ecological scaffolding model in which cells modify the environment that later becomes the scaffold giving rise to multicellular individuality.