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Freeman, New YorkĪyala EJ (1988) Can “progress” be defined as a biological concept? In: Nitecki MH (ed) Evolutionary progress. Wiley, New York, pp 521–553Ĭarroll RL (1988) Vertebrate paleontology and evolution. In: Roth G, Wullimann ME (eds) Brain evolution and cognition. Jerison HJ (2001) The evolution of neural complexity. In: RothG, Wullimann ME (eds) Brain evolution and cognition. Hofman MA (2001) Evolution and complexity of the human brain: some organizing principles. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 1–21īutler AB, Hodos W (2005) Comparative vertebrate neuroanatomy: evolution and adaptation, 2nd edn. In: Kesner R, Olton D (eds) Animal cognition. Hodos W, Campbell CBG (1990) Evolutionary scales and comparative studies of cognition. Lovejoy AO (1936) The great chain of being. Hodos W, Campbell CBG (1969) Scala naturae: why there is no theory in comparative psychology. Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK (Translated by A Platt) Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK (Translated by W Ogle)Īristotle (1912) De Generatione Animalium. Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK (Translated by W Ogle)Īristotle (1912) De Partibus Animalium. In this article I propose a tree-like 'symbiogenesis, natural selection, and dynamic Earth (synade)-model' of macroevolution that is based on these novel facts and data.Aristotle (1910) Historia Animalium. As a result, these geologic processes destroyed numerous populations of organisms, and produced the environmental conditions for new species of animals, plants and microbes to adapt and evolve. At the same time, it created mountain ranges, deep oceans, novel freshwater habitats, and deserts. Over millions of years, plate tectonics and hence the 'dynamic Earth' has caused destructive volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The resulting theory of plate tectonics is now the principal organizing concept of geology. In 1929, Alfred Wegener published his theory of continental drift, which was later corroborated, modified and extended. According to the symbiogenesis-scenario, eukaryotic cells evolved on a static Earth from archaic prokaryotes via the fusion and subsequent cooperation of certain microbes. In 1910, Constantin Mereschkowsky proposed an alternative, 'anti-selectionist' concept of biological evolution, which became known as the symbiogenesis-theory. In this article I argue that Darwin was still influenced by 'ladder thinking', a theological view that prevailed throughout the 19th century and is also part of Ernst Haeckel's famous Oak tree (of Life) of 1866, which is, like Darwin's scheme, static. This insight of 1859 was based on his now firmly corroborated proposals of common ancestry and natural selection. Charles Darwin is usually credited with the establishment of a branched evolutionary 'Tree of Life'. 1850 (Charles Bonnet, Jean Lamarck and others). Despite these insights, the Bible-based concept of the so-called 'ladder of life' or Scala Naturae, i.e., the idea that all living beings can be viewed as representing various degrees of 'perfection', with humans at the very top of this biological hierarchy, was popular among naturalists until ca. However, the evolution of phenotypic features is not predictable, and biologists no longer use terms such as 'primitive' or 'perfect organisms'. 3500 million year long evolutionary history.

However, it can be interpreted as having a loose basis on the evolutionary model as the steps up the ladder reflect the bigger picture of human evolution.The one of the original Ladders of Nature included God, angels, humanity, animals, plants and minerals. All living beings on Earth, from bacteria to humans, are connected through descent from common ancestors and represent the summation of their corresponding, ca. His taxonomy is still in use today.Aristotle's main work on this classification of animals was the Scala Naturae or Ladder of Nature, which was not evolutionary in its structure as it placed contemporary species on the rungs of the model.