Biology Question

Question

What was Gould's observation regarding the modal level of complexity of life? If nothing drives life towards greater complexity of form, how does evolution give rise to extremely complex organisms like humans and halibuts?

Answer 1

This is an interesting question and honestly somewhat odd to answer because although we cannot completely explain the complexity of higher function organisms, and even the behavior of social organism, like ants, where the "social organism" as a whole function in somewhat of a complex manner, "nothing" in the question, that "drives complexity of form" would be hard for anyone to rationalize, because for me, as more of an experimental biologist, and knowing a little bit about Evolution, yes, Natural Selection itself, in some respect, is nothing, because some traits are favored over others, for purposes that are not necessarily geared towards complexity, but more for "getting the specie's genes into the next generation," and if the organism, it's components (organ systems, behavior in the environment) becomes more complex as a consequence, of something "separate" that serves as the impetus for Evolution, then it may be very well difficult to assign something to "driving" organism to greater complexity. So, think more like Evolution as a process, a very long process, and separate, (possibly unlinked: modifications arise) over some large span of time that favor the organism in some way that we, as humans, see as more complex. Present day now, we see very large organism, that are unique, and a vast array of diversity, while we can also so "less complex" organism and "compare" one to another, and we can build a schematic of "complexity," perhaps with a broad base and a narrower top that becomes more complex, as organism become more specific. So, yes, we can gather from empirical studies, different facts about existing and even "extinct: organism and make projections about the mechanisms of an organism acquiring/losing new traits, speciation, and more easily say that in the broader sense, Evolution, could explain complexity, and more distinct mechanisms of Evolution, "speciation events," specific to any given circumstance, could explain the process. Interesting question.