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PEACEFUL COEXISTANCE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY Gustavo Bardier

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PEACEFUL COEXISTANCE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY Gustavo Bardier Bol. Soc. Zool. Uruguay, 2ª época, 2011. 20: 34-56 ESSAY PEACEFUL COEXISTANCE EVOLUTIONARY THEORY Gustavo Bardier There are many scientific theories proposed by different authors about the evolution of living organisms. Due to its foundation and academic support, the most popular theories are the Neo-Darwinian, Neutral, Neo-Lamarckian, Epigenetic and Systemtic. From which Neo-Darwinian Theory is the most dogmatic and hegemonic of them all. Regardless of its hegemony, this theory is nowadays being criticized by evolutionary biology itself and most of its central arguments are being questioned. Several authors make reference to this questioning of Natural Selection Theory. As an example Rosen & Buth (1980) state: “…we eschew the use of the metaphor `Natural Selection´ because that metaphor has now been used in many senses and contexts that seem entirely divorced from the empirical world”. Similarly, Futuyma (1992) states: “Both in popular literature and in academic literature… the Neo-Darwinian Theory, that had its origin in the Modern Synthesis, has been criticized as incomplete, inadequate as an explanation for the evolution or simply wrong”. Recently, Doménech (2000) argues: “In spite of its overwhelming success, the Natural Selection theory has never been able to impose in a clear and complete way. There are increasing supporters of the idea that the Synthetic Evolutionary Theory is incomplete and constitutes just a fraction of the evolutionary history”. Some authors emphasize the need for an alternative explanation for evolutionary processes. Thereby, Rosen & Buth (1980) write: “…the effort expended on applications of natural selection would be best spent elsewhere - either in other research, or in the attempt to formulate a more workable theory to replace Darwin’s speculation”. Blanc (1982) says: “Many evolutionists are willing to abandon neo-darwinian rows and not few wonder if we are not moving towards the emergence of a new evolutionary theory”. Two years ago, Nogueira (2009) stated: “Observations in new fields, such as genomics and epigenetics, find no parallel in Darwin’s line of thoughts. There are those who propose that a new conceptual revolution may be necessary in biology”. In response to these criticisms and the demand for a new explanation for evolutionary processes, this essay is presented to the scientific community as a new theory I denominated “Peaceful Coexistence Evolutionary Theory”. Coming as a conceptual reinterpretation of the biological knowledge gathered so far, to explain how the process of biological adaptation occurs through an evolutionary system other than natural selection and/or any other mechanism known up to date. This is not an “invention” from the author, it is an evolutionary system identified in wild populations and not described so far, recognized through direct observation of animal behavior, preliminary investigations (Bardier, 2001; Bardier& Santee, 1999) and founded in diverse scientific data obtained from bibliographic references on the topic. Considering this original explanation for natural evolution, we can comprehend how micro and macro evolutionary changes occurred; how the great diversity of species, extinct or not, evolved from a common ancestor of relatively simple organization through geological time. Among the main points raised and defended in this proposal we highlight: the systemic approach to explain the evolution of life; the description of a new evolutionary system, denominated “neofitness amplitude”; and the conception of a natural world evolving in peaceful and cooperative coexistence. Within the main the records, we can cite “Mutual Aid” of Peter Kropotkin (1902) and “Peaceful Coexistence”, chapter of Paul Colinvaux (1985). A preliminary version of this proposal was attached to the Masters dissertation carried out in Brazil (Bardier, 2001), in a 533 pages text with more than 150 bibliographic references, available in the university’s library. The evolutionary system proposed in the theory, can be identified in natural populations and is based in five statements: 1°neofit state or neofitness; 2° neofitness tests; 3°neofitness amplitude; 4° success of the neofitness amplitude; 5° species renovation. First statement- NEOFIT STATE OR NEOFITNESS: Neofit individuals are those that fulfill two biologic conditions: reproductive maturity (sexual or asexual) and physical and behavioral health. The term refers to all the “healthy adults”. Therefore all newborns, juveniles, old, sick or wounded organisms are not neofit. Explanation: There is no problem to determine an organism’s age. Field biologists usually work with this parameter and possess a wide variety of techniques applicable to many species. The healthy state is, however, more difficult to establish, especially behavioral health. In this proposal, health is defined as strictly related to the organism’s adaptation to its ecological and social niche, that is, there will be named as healthy those characteristics or traits that do not prejudice the organism’s adaptive process. Unhealthy individuals are not adapted individuals. This is due to the fact that all biological characteristics that do not adjust to the environment end up negatively affecting the neofit state. In this statement it is important to highlight that, from a reproductive point of view, all neofit individuals are potentially successful; differential reproduction obeys to multiple intrinsic and extrinsic factors of the individual and the population (not only to genetic features evolved by natural selection). The neofit state is independent from the selection coefficient: there are no individuals more or less neofit, either they are neofit or they are not. All individuals that have not reached or have passed reproductive age (too young or too old) and those that suffer from any disease or have had an accident do not possess the neofit state necessary to reproduce. Second statement- NEOFITNESS TESTS: There are behavioral mechanisms that allow individuals from the same species to differentiate neofit organisms from those that are not. Only neofit individuals will pass the tests and gain access to the reproductive context. Explanation: Neofit are socially recognized in a sexual and agonistic context through a behavior called “neofitness tests”. In such tests, individuals demonstrate their health and sexual maturity. They do that during courtship through “physical” tests, as the peacock’s tail; through “endurance” tests, as bees’ nuptial flight; or through “strength” tests, as male moose lock their horns together and push during a fight. It is necessary to overcome these tests to access reproduction and only adult and healthy organisms are able to do so; young, old or sick organisms do not pass the tests, as they do not have the looks, the strength or the endurance required. Courtship is the main neofitness test in reproductive context. Its behavioral complexity, the energetic cost or the investment in biological material needed to court, demonstrate who is neofit and who is not. Species that do not present courtship have other mechanisms to communicate their neofit state (e.g. physical or chemical). The resolution of social conflicts through agonistic behavior also implies a neofitness demonstration. Such resolution depends on the state of the organism that occupies the resource, if it is neofit or not. Resources occupied by individuals that demonstrate being neofit are naturally respected, continuing with the resource holding after the conflict (see subtitle “Peaceful Coexistence” in page 8). If they do not overcome the tests, they will be identified as not neofit individuals, and consequently would not be accepted in the reproductive context, mating will be denied to them either in a sexual context or because they do not possess the resources required to obtain it (e.g. Food or territory) in an agonistic context. Observe that the proposal is not referring to the relation between the more adapted, the more it reproduces, the more fitted it is; central argument of Natural Selection Theory. It would be enough for an individual to demonstrate that is a healthy adult in the neofitness tests to gain access to reproduction. Noefitness tests in plants are more difficult to identify, although agronomists and agriculturists are easily able to detect weather a plant is sick or healthy. Furthermore, not neofit plants are not able to produce reproductive structures. An important point from the second statement involves the genotypic and phenotypic consequences on the frequencies of the different traits within the population. As mentioned before, individuals only need to pass the neofitness tests to reproduce, therefore all phenotypic features that do not prejudice the neofit state, genetic, learned, stochastic, neutral, more or less adapted, would fix in the population. At the same time, as the individuals that do not pass the neofitness tests do not have access to reproduction, all phenotypic features that prejudice the neofit state (not adaptive) would be eliminated from the population. Thus, a direct consequence of the neofitness tests on the population the conformation of a great biodiversity and biocomplexity of features adapted to the ecological niche of the species. Third statement- NEOFITNESS AMPLITUDE: This concept represents all the neofit organisms within the population, which would be all the organisms that were able to stand the neofitness test including their social and ecological interactions. Explanation: Neofitness amplitude as a whole, involves
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