Typology now: homology and developmental constraints explain evolvability

Biology and Philosophy 22 (5):709-725 (2007)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

By linking the concepts of homology and morphological organization to evolvability, this paper attempts to (1) bridge the gap between developmental and phylogenetic approaches to homology and to (2) show that developmental constraints and natural selection are compatible and in fact complementary. I conceive of a homologue as a unit of morphological evolvability, i.e., as a part of an organism that can exhibit heritable phenotypic variation independently of the organism’s other homologues. An account of homology therefore consists in explaining how an organism’s developmental constitution results in different homologues/characters as units that can evolve independently of each other. The explanans of an account of homology is developmental, yet the very explanandum is an evolutionary phenomenon: evolvability in a character-by-character fashion, which manifests itself in phylogenetic patterns as recognized by phylogenetic approaches to homology. While developmental constraints and selection have often been viewed as antagonistic forces, I argue that both are complementary as they concern different parts of the evolutionary process. Developmental constraints, conceived of as the presence of the same set of homologues across phenotypic change, pertain to how heritable variation can be generated in the first place (evolvability), while natural selection operates subsequently on the produced variation.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 100,774

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

The Causal Homology Concept.Jun Otsuka - 2017 - Philosophy of Science 84 (5):1128-1139.
Homology and heterochrony: the evolutionary embryologist Gavin Rylands de Beer (1899-1972).Ingo Brigandt - 2006 - Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution) 306 (4):317-328.
Typology and Natural Kinds in Evo-Devo.Ingo Brigandt - 2021 - In Nuño De La Rosa Laura & Müller Gerd (eds.), Evolutionary Developmental Biology: A Reference Guide. Springer. pp. 483-493.
What Evolvability Really Is.Rachael L. Brown - 2013 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (3):axt014.
Development as an Adaptation: A Philosophical Contribution to the Developmental Synthesis.Roger B. Sansom - 2002 - Dissertation, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
213 (#117,318)

6 months
10 (#360,910)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Ingo Brigandt
University of Alberta