Home Anthro Assignment 2

Anthro Assignment 2

Instructions:

Read Chapter 2 “Why is Evolution Important to Anthropologists?” (pgs. 31-59 in textbook)
Read “The Evolution of Life on Earth” by Stephen Jay Gould (pgs. 92-100)
Watch video “Natural Selection – Crash Course Biology #14”

Post to online discussion forum for week 2 (by Wednesday, January 22nd)

In his article, Stephen Jay Gould points out that Darwin’s natural selection only goes so far when explaining the evolution of life on earth. According to Gould, what is one of the pitfalls of natural selection? You may critique natural selection in terms of its bias or ability to explain the fossil record as discussed by Gould. Although duplication is impossible to avoid, try to highlight a facet in the article not mentioned in your classmates’ posts.

The Evolution of Life on the Earth
Author(s): Stephen Jay Gould
Source: Scientific American, Vol. 271, No. 4, SPECIAL ISSUE: LIFE IN THE UNIVERS

(OCTOBER 1994), pp. 84-9

Published by: Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc.
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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN October 1994 8

S
ome creators announce their in-
ventions with grand �clat. God
proclaimed, ÒFiat lux,Ó and then

ßooded his new universe with bright-
ness. Others bring forth great discov-
eries in a modest guise, as did Charles
Darwin in deÞning his new mechanism
of evolutionary causality in 1859: ÒI have
called this principle, by which each slight
variation, if useful, is preserved, by the
term Natural Selection.Ó

Natural selection is an immensely
powerful yet beautifully simple theory
that has held up remarkably well, un-
der intense and unrelenting scrutiny
and testing, for 135 years. In essence,
natural selection locates the mechanism
of evolutionary change in a ÒstruggleÓ
among organisms for reproductive suc-
cess, leading to improved Þt of popula-
tions to changing environments. (Strug-
gle is often a metaphorical description
and need not be viewed as overt com-
bat, guns blazing. Tactics for reproduc-
tive success include a variety of non-
martial activities such as earlier and
more frequent mating or better cooper-
ation with partners in raising oÝspring.)
Natural selection is therefore a princi-
ple of local adaptation, not of general
advance or progress.

Yet powerful though the principle
may be, natural selection is not the only

cause of evolutionary change (and may,
in many cases, be overshadowed by oth-
er forces). This point needs emphasis
because the standard misapplication of
evolutionary theory assumes that bio-
logical explanation may be equated with
devising accounts, often speculative and
conjectural in practice, about the adap-
tive value of any given feature in its
original environment (human aggres-
sion as good for hunting, music and re-
ligion as good for tribal cohesion, for
example). Darwin himself strongly em-
phasized the multifactorial nature of
evolutionary change and warned against
too exclusive a reliance on natural se-
lection, by placing the following state-
ment in a maximally conspicuous place
at the very end of his introduction: ÒI
am convinced that Natural Selection has
been the most important, but not the
exclusive, means of modiÞcation.Ó

N
atural selection is not fully suf-
Þcient to explain evolutionary
change for two major reasons.

First, many other causes are powerful,
particularly at levels of biological orga-
nization both above and below the tra-
ditional Darwinian focus on organisms
and their struggles for reproductive suc-
cess. At the lowest level of substitution
in individual base pairs of DNA, change
is often eÝectively neutral and therefore
random. At higher levels, involving en-
tire species or faunas, punctuated equi-
librium can produce evolutionary trends
by selection of species based on their
rates of origin and extirpation, whereas
mass extinctions wipe out substantial
parts of biotas for reasons unrelated to
adaptive struggles of constituent species
in ÒnormalÓ times between such events.

Second, and the focus of this article,
no matter how adequate our general
theory of evolutionary change, we also
yearn to document and understand the
actual pathway of lifeÕs history. Theory,

of course, is relevant to explaining the
pathway (nothing about the pathway
can be inconsistent with good theory,
and theory can predict certain general
aspects of lifeÕs geologic pattern). But
the actual pathway is strongly underde-
termined by our general theory of lifeÕs
evolution. This point needs some bela-
boring as a central yet widely misunder-
stood aspect of the worldÕs complexity..
Webs and chains of historical events are
so intricate, so imbued with random
and chaotic elements, so unrepeatable
in encompassing such a multitude of
unique (and uniquely interacting) ob-
jects, that standard models of simple
prediction and replication do not apply.

History can be explained, with satis-
fying rigor if evidence be adequate, af-
ter a sequence of events unfolds, but it
cannot be predicted with any precision
beforehand. Pierre-Simon Laplace, echo-
ing the growing and conÞdent determin-
ism of the late 18th century, once said
that he could specify all future states if
he could know the position and motion
of all particles in the cosmos at any mo-
ment, but the nature of universal com-
plexity shatters this chimerical dream.
History includes too much chaos, or ex-
tremely sensitive dependence on minute
and unmeasurable diÝerences in initial
conditions, leading to massively diver-
gent outcomes based on tiny and un-
knowable disparities in starting points.

The Evolution of Life
on the Earth

The history of life is not necessarily progressive;
it is certainly not predictable. The earth’s creatures have evolved

through a series of contingent and fortuitous events

by Stephen Jay Gould

STEPHEN JAY GOULD teaches biology,
geology and the history of science at
Harvard University, where he has been
on the faculty since 1967. He received an
A.B. from Antioch College and a Ph.D. in
paleontology from Columbia University.
Well known for his popular scientiÞc
writings, in particular his monthly col-
umn in Natural History magazine, he is
the author of 13 books.

SLAB CONTAINING SPECIMENS of Pteri-
dinium from Namibia shows a promi-
nent organism from the earthÕs Þrst mul-
ticellular fauna, called Ediacaran, which
appeared some 600 million years ago.
The Ediacaran animals died out before
the Cambrian explosion of modern life.
These thin, quilted, sheetlike organisms
may be ancestral to some modern forms
but may also represent a separate and
ultimately failed experiment in multi-
cellular life. The history of life tends to
move in quick and quirky episodes, rath-
er than by gradual improvement.

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And history includes too much contin-
gency, or shaping of present results by
long chains of unpredictable anteced-
ent states, rather than immediate de-
termination by timeless laws of nature.

Homo sapiens did not appear on the
earth, just a geologic second ago, be-
cause evolutionary theory predicts such
an outcome based on themes of prog-
ress and increasing neural complexity.
Humans arose, rather, as a fortuitous
and contingent outcome of thousands
of linked events, any one of which could
have occurred diÝerently and sent his-
tory on an alternative pathway that
would not have led to consciousness.
To cite just four among a multitude: (1)
If our inconspicuous and fragile lineage
had not been among the few survivors
of the initial radiation of multicellular
animal life in the Cambrian explosion
530 million years ago, then no verte-
brates would have inhabited the earth
at all. ( Only one member of our chor-
date phylum, the genus Pikaia, has been
found among these earliest fossils. This
small and simple swimming creature,
showing its allegiance to us by possess-
ing a notochord, or dorsal stiÝening
rod, is among the rarest fossils of the
Burgess Shale, our best preserved Cam-
brian fauna.) (2) If a small and unprom-
ising group of lobe-Þnned Þshes had
not evolved Þn bones with a strong cen-
tral axis capable of bearing weight on
land, then vertebrates might never have
become terrestrial. (3) If a large extra-
terrestrial body had not struck the earth
65 million years ago, then dinosaurs

would still be dominant and mammals
insigniÞcant (the situation that had pre-
vailed for 100 million years previously).
(4) If a small lineage of primates had
not evolved upright posture on the dry-
ing African savannas just two to four
million years ago, then our ancestry
might have ended in a line of apes that,
like the chimpanzee and gorilla today,
would have become ecologically mar-
ginal and probably doomed to extinc-
tion despite their remarkable behavior-
al complexity.

Therefore, to understand the events
and generalities of lifeÕs pathway, we
must go beyond principles of evolution-
ary theory to a paleontological exami-
nation of the contingent pattern of lifeÕs
history on our planetÑthe single actu-
alized version among millions of plau-
sible alternatives that happened not to
occur. Such a view of lifeÕs history is
highly contrary both to conventional de-
terministic models of Western science
and to the deepest social traditions and
psychological hopes of Western culture
for a history culminating in humans as
lifeÕs highest expression and intended
planetary steward.

Science can, and does, strive to grasp
natureÕs factuality, but all science is so-
cially embedded, and all scientists re-
cord prevailing Òcertainties,Ó however
hard they may be aiming for pure ob-
jectivity. Darwin himself, in the closing
lines of The Origin of Species, expressed
Victorian social preference more than
natureÕs record in writing : ÒAs natural
selection works solely by and for the

good of each being, all corporeal and
mental endowments will tend to prog-
ress towards perfection.Ó

LifeÕs pathway certainly includes many
features predictable from laws of na-
ture, but these aspects are too broad
and general to provide the ÒrightnessÓ
that we seek for validating evolutionÕs
particular resultsÑroses, mushrooms,
people and so forth. Organisms adapt
to, and are constrained by, physical
principles. It is, for example, scarcely
surprising, given laws of gravity, that the
largest vertebrates in the sea (whales)
exceed the heaviest animals on land (ele-
phants today, dinosaurs in the past),
which, in turn, are far bulkier than the
largest vertebrate that ever ßew (extinct
pterosaurs of the Mesozoic era ).

Predictable ecological rules govern
the structuring of communities by prin-
ciples of energy ßow and thermodynam-
ics (more biomass in prey than in pred-
ators, for example). Evolutionary trends,
once started, may have local predict-
ability (Òarms races,Ó in which both
predators and prey hone their defenses
and weapons, for exampleÑa pattern
that Geerat J. Vermeij of the University
of California at Davis has called Òesca-
lationÓ and documented in increasing
strength of both crab claws and shells
of their gastropod prey through time).
But laws of nature do not tell us why
we have crabs and snails at all, why in-
sects rule the multicellular world and
why vertebrates rather than persistent
algal mats exist as the most complex
forms of life on the earth.

Relative to the conventional view of
lifeÕs history as an at least broadly pre-
dictable process of gradually advancing
complexity through time, three features
of the paleontological record stand out
in opposition and shall therefore serve
as organizing themes for the rest of this
article: the constancy of modal com-
plexity throughout lifeÕs history; the
concentration of major events in short
bursts interspersed with long periods
of relative stability; and the role of ex-
ternal impositions, primarily mass ex-
tinctions, in disrupting patterns of Ònor-
malÓ times. These three features, com-
bined with more general themes of
chaos and contingency, require a new
framework for conceptualizing and
drawing lifeÕs history, and this article
therefore closes with suggestions for a
diÝerent iconography of evolution.

T
he primary paleontological fact
about lifeÕs beginnings points to
predictability for the onset and

very little for the particular pathways
thereafter. The earth is 4.6 billion years
old, but the oldest rocks date to about
3.9 billion years because the earthÕs sur-

86 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN October 199

PROGRESS DOES NOT RULE (and is not even a primary thrust of ) the evolutionary
process. For reasons of chemistry and physics, life arises next to the Ò left wallÓ of
its simplest conceivable and preservable complexity. This style of life (bacterial )
has remained most common and most successful. A few creatures occasionally
move to the right, thus extending the right tail in the distribution of complexity.
Many always move to the left, but they are absorbed within space already occupied.
Note that the bacterial mode has never changed in position, but just grown higher.

LEFT WALL OF MINIMAL

COMPLEXITY

BACTERIA

COMPLEXITY

PRESENT

PRECAMBRIAN
F

R
E

Q
U

E
N

C
Y

F
O

C
C

U
R

R
E

N
C

E
BACTERIA

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face became molten early in its history,
a result of bombardment by large
amounts of cosmic debris during the
solar systemÕs coalescence, and of heat
generated by radioactive decay of short-
lived isotopes. These oldest rocks are
too metamorphosed by subsequent heat
and pressure to preserve fossils (though
some scientists interpret the propor-
tions of carbon isotopes in these rocks
as signs of organic production). The old-
est rocks suÛciently unaltered to retain
cellular fossilsÑAfrican and Australian
sediments dated to 3.5 billion years
oldÑdo preserve prokaryotic cells (bac-
teria and cyanophytes) and stromato-
lites (mats of sediment trapped and
bound by these cells in shallow marine
waters). Thus, life on the earth evolved
quickly and is as old as it could be. This
fact alone seems to indicate an inevit-
ability, or at least a predictability, for
lifeÕs origin from the original chemical
constituents of atmosphere and ocean.

No one can doubt that more complex
creatures arose sequentially after this
prokaryotic beginningÑÞrst eukaryotic
cells, perhaps about two billion years
ago, then multicellular animals about
600 million years ago, with a relay of
highest complexity among animals
passing from invertebrates, to marine
vertebrates and, Þnally ( if we wish, al-
beit parochially, to honor neural archi-
tecture as a primary criterion), to rep-
tiles, mammals and humans. This is the
conventional sequence represented in
the old charts and texts as an Òage of
invertebrates,Ó followed by an Òage of
Þshes,Ó Òage of reptiles,Ó Òage of mam-
mals,Ó and Òage of manÓ (to add the old
gender bias to all the other prejudices
implied by this sequence).

I do not deny the facts of the preced-
ing paragraph but wish to argue that
our conventional desire to view history
as progressive, and to see humans as
predictably dominant, has grossly dis-
torted our interpretation of lifeÕs path-
way by falsely placing in the center of
things a relatively minor phenomenon
that arises only as a side consequence
of a physically constrained starting
point. The most salient feature of life
has been the stability of its bacterial
mode from the beginning of the fossil
record until today and, with little doubt,
into all future time so long as the earth
endures. This is truly the Òage of bacte-
riaÓÑas it was in the beginning, is now
and ever shall be.

For reasons related to the chemistry
of lifeÕs origin and the physics of self-
organization, the Þrst living things arose
at the lower limit of lifeÕs conceivable,
preservable complexity. Call this lower
limit the Òleft wallÓ for an architecture
of complexity. Since so little space ex-

ists between the left wall and lifeÕs ini-
tial bacterial mode in the fossil record,
only one direction for future increment
existsÑtoward greater complexity at
the right. Thus, every once in a while, a
more complex creature evolves and ex-
tends the range of lifeÕs diversity in the
only available direction. In technical
terms, the distribution of complexity
becomes more strongly right skewed
through these occasional additions.

But the additions are rare and epi-
sodic. They do not even constitute an
evolutionary series but form a motley
sequence of distantly related taxa, usu-
ally depicted as eukaryotic cell, jelly-
Þsh, trilobite, nautiloid, eurypterid (a
large relative of horseshoe crabs), Þsh,
an amphibian such as Eryops, a dino-
saur, a mammal and a human being.
This sequence cannot be construed as
the major thrust or trend of lifeÕs histo-
ry. Think rather of an occasional crea-
ture tumbling into the empty right re-
gion of complexityÕs space. Throughout
this entire time, the bacterial mode has
grown in height and remained constant
in position. Bacteria represent the great
success story of lifeÕs pathway. They oc-
cupy a wider domain of environments
and span a broader range of biochem-
istries than any other group. They are
adaptable, indestructible and astound-
ingly diverse. We cannot even imagine
how anthropogenic intervention might
threaten their extinction, although we
worry about our impact on nearly ev-
ery other form of life. The number of
Escherichia coli cells in the gut of each
human being exceeds the number of hu-

mans that has ever lived on this planet.
One might grant that complexiÞca-

tion for life as a whole represents a
pseudotrend based on constraint at the
left wall but still hold that evolution
within particular groups diÝerentially
favors complexity when the founding
lineage begins far enough from the left
wall to permit movement in both direc-
tions. Empirical tests of this interesting
hypothesis are just beginning (as con-
cern for the subject mounts among pa-
leontologists), and we do not yet have
enough cases to advance a generality.
But the Þrst two studiesÑby Daniel W.
McShea of the University of Michigan
on mammalian vertebrae and by George
F. Boyajian of the University of Pennsyl-
vania on ammonite suture linesÑshow
no evolutionary tendencies to favor in-
creased complexity.

Moreover, when we consider that for
each mode of life involving greater com-
plexity, there probably exists an equal-
ly advantageous style based on greater
simplicity of form (as often found in
parasites, for example), then preferen-
tial evolution toward complexity seems
unlikely a priori. Our impression that
life evolves toward greater complexity
is probably only a bias inspired by pa-
rochial focus on ourselves, and conse-
quent overattention to complexifying
creatures, while we ignore just as many
lineages adapting equally well by be-
coming simpler in form. The morpho-
logically degenerate parasite, safe with-
in its host, has just as much prospect
for evolutionary success as its gorgeous-
ly elaborate relative coping with the

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN October 1994 87

NEW ICONOGRAPHY OF LIFEÕS TREE shows that maximal diversity in anatomical
forms (not in number of species) is reached very early in lifeÕs multicellular histo-
ry. Later times feature extinction of most of these initial experiments and enor-
mous success within surviving lines. This success is measured in the proliferation
of species but not in the development of new anatomies. Today we have more spe-
cies than ever before, although they are restricted to fewer basic anatomies.

ANATOMICAL DIVERSITY

T
IM

E
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slings and arrows of outrageous for-
tune in a tough external world.

E
ven if complexity is only a drift
away from a constraining left
wall, we might view trends in this

direction as more predictable and char-
acteristic of lifeÕs pathway as a whole if
increments of complexity accrued in a
persistent and gradually accumulating
manner through time. But nothing about
lifeÕs history is more peculiar with re-
spect to this common (and false) expec-
tation than the actual pattern of extend-
ed stability and rapid episodic move-
ment, as revealed by the fossil record.

Life remained almost exclusively uni-
cellular for the Þrst Þve sixths of its
historyÑfrom the Þrst recorded fossils
at 3.5 billion years to the Þrst well-doc-
umented multicellular animals less than
600 million years ago. ( Some simple
multicellular algae evolved more than a
billion years ago, but these organisms
belong to the plant kingdom and have
no genealogical connection with ani-
mals.) This long period of unicellular
life does include, to be sure, the vitally

important transition from simple pro-
karyotic cells without organelles to eu-
karyotic cells with nuclei, mitochondria
and other complexities of intracellular
architectureÑbut no recorded attain-
ment of multicellular animal organiza-
tion for a full three billion years. If com-
plexity is such a good thing, and multi-
cellularity represents its initial phase in
our usual view, then life certainly took
its time in making this crucial step. Such
delays speak strongly against general
progress as the major theme of lifeÕs
history, even if they can be plausibly ex-
plained by lack of suÛcient atmospher-
ic oxygen for most of Precambrian time
or by failure of unicellular life to achieve
some structural threshold acting as a
prerequisite to multicellularity.

More curiously, all major stages in
organizing animal lifeÕs multicellular
architecture then occurred in a short
period beginning less than 600 million
years ago and ending by about 530 mil-
lion years agoÑand the steps within
this sequence are also discontinuous
and episodic, not gradually accumula-
tive. The Þrst fauna, called Ediacaran

34. Sidneyia
35. Odaraia
36. Eiffelia
37. Mackenzia
38. Odontogriphus
39. Hallucigenia
40. Elrathia
41. Anomalocaris
42. Lingulella
43. Scenella
44. Canadaspis
45. Marrella
46. Olenoides

22. Emeraldella
23. Burgessia
24. Leanchoilia
25. Sanctacaris
26. Ottoia
27. Louisella
28. Actaeus
29. Yohoia
30. Peronochaeta
31. Selkirkia
32. Ancalagon
33. Burgessochaeta

11. Micromitra
12. Echmatocrinus
13. Chancelloria
14. Pirania
15. Choia
16. Leptomitus
17. Dinomischus
18. Wiwaxia
19. Naraoia
20. Hyolithes
21. Habelia

1. Vauxia (gracile)
2. Branchiocaris
3. Opabinia
4. Amiskwia
5. Vauxia (robust)
6. Molaria
7. Aysheaia
8. Sarotrocercus
9. Nectocaris

10. Pikaia

3
4
5

7
8

11
12

14 15

19 20

28
2

31
32

39
38

9
6
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to honor the Australian locality of its
initial discovery but now known from
rocks on all continents, consists of high-
ly ßattened fronds, sheets and circlets
composed of numerous slender seg-
ments quilted together. The nature of
the Ediacaran fauna is now a subject of
intense discussion. These creatures do
not seem to be simple precursors of lat-
er forms. They may constitute a sepa-
rate and failed experiment in animal
life, or they may represent a full range
of diploblastic (two-layered ) organiza-
tion, of which the modern phylum Cnid-
aria (corals, jellyÞshes and their allies)
remains as a small and much altered
remnant.

In any case, they apparently died out
well before the Cambrian biota evolved.
The Cambrian then began with an as-
semblage of bits and pieces, frustrat-
ingly diÛcult to interpret, called the
Òsmall shelly fauna.Ó The subsequent
main pulse, starting about 530 million
years ago, constitutes the famous Cam-
brian explosion, during which all but
one modern phylum of animal life made
a Þrst appearance in the fossil record.
( Geologists had previously allowed up
to 40 million years for this event, but
an elegant study, published in 1993,
clearly restricts this period of phyletic
ßowering to a mere Þve million years.)
The Bryozoa, a group of sessile and co-
lonial marine organisms, do not arise
until the beginning of the subsequent,
Ordovician period, but this apparent

delay may be an artifact of failure to
discover Cambrian representatives.

Although interesting and portentous
events have occurred since, from the
ßowering of dinosaurs to the origin of
human consciousness, we do not exag-
gerate greatly in stating that the subse-
quent history of animal life amounts to
little more than variations on anatomi-
cal themes established during the Cam-
brian explosion within Þve million years.
Three billion years of unicellularity, fol-
lowed by Þve million years of intense
creativity and then capped by more
than 500 million years of variation on
set anatomical themes can scarcely be
read as a predictable, inexorable or con-
tinuous trend toward progress or in-
creasing complexity.

We do not know why the Cambrian
explosion could establish all major
anatomical designs so quickly. An Òex-
ternalÓ explanation based on ecology
seems attractive: the Cambrian explo-
sion represents an initial Þlling of the
Òecological barrelÓ of niches for multi-
cellular organisms, and any experiment
found a space. The barrel has never
emptied since; even the great mass ex-
tinctions left a few species in each prin-
cipal role, and their occupation of eco-
logical space forecloses opportunity for
fundamental novelties. But an Òinter-
nalÓ explanation based on genetics and
development also seems necessary as a
complement : the earliest multicellular
animals may have maintained a ßexibil-
ity for genetic change and embryologi-
cal transformation that became greatly
reduced as organisms Òlocked inÓ to a
set of stable and successful designs.

In any case, this initial period of both
internal and external ßexibility yielded
a range of invertebrate anatomies that
may have exceeded ( in just a few mil-
lion years of production) the full scope
of animal form in all the earthÕs envi-
ronments today (after more than 500
million years of additional time for fur-
ther expansion). Scientists are divided
on this question. Some claim that the
anatomical range of this initial explo-
sion exceeded that of modern life, as
many early experiments died out and
no new phyla have ever arisen. But sci-

entists most strongly opposed to this
view allow that Cambrian diversity at
least equaled the modern rangeÑso
even the most cautious opinion holds
that 500 million subsequent years of
opportunity have not expanded the
Cambrian range, achieved in just Þve
million years. The Cambrian explosion
was the most remarkable and puzzling
event in the history of life.

Moreover, we do not know why most
of the early experiments died, while a
few survived to become our modern
phyla. It is tempting to say that the vic-
tors won by virtue of greater anatomi-
cal complexity, better ecological Þt or
some other predictable feature of con-
ventional Darwinian struggle. But no
recognized traits unite the victors, and
the radical alternative must be enter-
tained that each early experiment re-
ceived little more than the equivalent
of a ticket in the largest lottery ever
played out on our planetÑand that
each surviving lineage, including our
own phylum of vertebrates, inhabits
the earth today more by the luck of the
draw than by any predictable struggle
for existence. The history of multicellu-
lar animal life may be more a story of
great reduction in initial possibilities,
with stabilization of lucky survivors,
than a conventional tale of steady eco-
logical expansion and morphological
progress in complexity.

Finally, this pattern of long stasis,
with change concentrated in rapid epi-
sodes that establish new equilibria, may
be quite general at several scales of time
and magnitude, forming a kind of frac-
tal pattern in self-similarity. According
to the punctuated equilibrium model of
speciation, trends within lineages occur
by accumulated episodes of geological-
ly instantaneous speciation, rather than
by gradual change within continuous
populations (like climbing a staircase
rather than rolling a ball up an inclined
plane).

E
ven if evolutionary theory implied
a potential internal direction for
lifeÕs pathway (although previous

facts and arguments in this article cast
doubt on such a claim), the occasional
imposition of a rapid and substantial,
perhaps even truly catastrophic, change
in environment would have intervened
to stymie the pattern. These environ-
mental changes trigger mass extinction
of a high percentage of the earthÕs spe-

GREAT DIVERSITY quickly evolved at
the dawn of multicellular animal life dur-
ing the Cambrian period (530 million
years ago). The creatures shown here
are all found in the Middle Cambrian
Burgess Shale fauna of Canada. They in-
clude some familiar forms (sponges, bra-
chiopods) that have survived. But many
creatures (such as the giant Anomaloca-
ris, at the lower right, largest of all the
Cambrian animals) did not live for long
and are so anatomically peculiar (rela-
tive to survivors) that we cannot classi-
fy them among known phyla.

45
46

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cies and may so derail any internal di-
rection and so reset the pathway that
the net pattern of lifeÕs history looks
more capricious and concentrated in
episodes than steady and directional.
Mass extinctions have been recognized
since the dawn of paleontology; the ma-
jor divisions of the geologic time scale
were established at boundaries marked
by such events. But until the revival of
interest that began in the late 1970s,
most paleontologists treated mass ex-
tinctions only as intensiÞcations of or-
dinary events, leading (at most) to a
speeding up of tendencies that pervad-
ed normal times. In this gradualistic
theory of mass extinction, these events
really took a few million years to unfold
(with the appearance of suddenness in-
terpreted as an artifact of an imperfect
fossil record ), and they only made the
ordinary occur faster (more intense Dar-
winian competition in tough times, for
example, leading to even more eÛcient
replacement of less adapted by superi-
or forms).

The reinterpretation of mass extinc-
tions as central to lifeÕs pathway and
radically diÝerent in eÝect began with
the presentation of data by Luis and
Walter Alvarez in 1979, indicating that
the impact of a large extraterrestrial
object (they suggested an asteroid sev-
en to 10 kilometers in diameter ) set oÝ
the last great extinction at the Creta-
ceous-Tertiary boundary 65 million
years ago. Although the Alvarez hypoth-

esis initially received very skeptical
treatment from scientists (a proper ap-
proach to highly unconventional expla-
nations), the case now seems virtually
proved by discovery of the Òsmoking
gun,Ó a crater of appropriate size and
age located oÝ the Yucat�n peninsula
in Mexico.

This reawakening of interest also in-
spired paleontologists to tabulate the
data of mass extinction more rigorous-
ly. Work by David M. Raup, J. J. Sepkos-
ki, Jr., and David Jablonski of the Uni-
versity of Chicago has established that
multicellular animal life experienced
Þve major (end of Ordovician, late De-
vonian, end of Permian, end of Triassic
and end of Cretaceous) and many mi-
nor mass extinctions during its 530-
million-year history. We have no clear
evidence that any but the last of these
events was triggered by catastrophic
impact, but such careful study leads to
the general conclusion that mass ex-
tinctions were more frequent, more ra-
pid, more extensive in magnitude and
more diÝerent in eÝect than paleontol-
ogists had previously realized. These
four properties encompass the radical
implications of mass extinction for un-
derstanding lifeÕs pathway as more con-
tingent and chancy than predictable and
directional.

Mass extinctions are not random in
their impact on life. Some lineages suc-
cumb and others survive as sensible
outcomes based on presence or absence

of evolved features. But especially if the
triggering cause of extinction be sud-
den and catastrophic, the reasons for
life or death may be random with re-
spect to the original value of key fea-
tures when Þrst evolved in Darwinian
struggles of normal times. This ÒdiÝer-
ent rulesÓ model of mass extinction im-
parts a quirky and unpredictable char-
acter to lifeÕs pathway based on the
evident claim that lineages cannot an-
ticipate future contingencies of such
magnitude and diÝerent operation.

To cite two examples from the im-
pact-triggered Cretaceous-Tertiary ex-
tinction 65 million years ago: First, an
important study published in 1986 not-
ed that diatoms survived the extinction
far better than other single-celled plank-
ton (primarily coccoliths and radiolar-
ia). This study found that many diatoms
had evolved a strategy of dormancy by
encystment, perhaps to survive through
seasonal periods of unfavorable condi-
tions (months of darkness in polar spe-
cies as otherwise fatal to these photo-
synthesizing cells; sporadic availability
of silica needed to construct their skele-
tons). Other planktonic cells had not
evolved any mechanisms for dormancy.
If the terminal Cretaceous impact pro-
duced a dust cloud that blocked light
for several months or longer (one pop-
ular idea for a Òkilling scenarioÓ in the
extinction), then diatoms may have sur-
vived as a fortuitous result of dorman-
cy mechanisms evolved for the entirely
diÝerent function of weathering sea-
sonal droughts in ordinary times. Di-
atoms are not superior to radiolaria or
other plankton that succumbed in far
greater numbers; they were simply for-
tunate to possess a favorable feature,
evolved for other reasons, that fostered
passage through the impact and its
sequelae.

Second, we all know that dinosaurs
perished in the end Cretaceous event
and that mammals therefore rule the

90 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN October 1994

CLASSICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF LIFEÕS HISTORY reveal the severe biases of
viewing evolution as embodying a central principle of progress and complexiÞ-
cation. In these paintings by Charles R. Knight from a 1942 issue of National Geo-
graphic, the Þrst panel shows invertebrates of the Burgess Shale. But as soon as
Þshes evolve ( panel 2), no subsequent scene ever shows another invertebrate, al-
though they did not go away or stop evolving. When land vertebrates arise ( panel
3), we never see another Þsh, even though return of land vertebrate lineages to the
sea may be depicted ( panel 4). The sequence always ends with mammals ( panel
5)Ñeven though Þshes, invertebrates and reptiles are still thrivingÑand, of
course, humans ( panel 6 ).

vertebrate world today. Most people as-
sume that mammals prevailed in these
tough times for some reason of general
superiority over dinosaurs. But such a
conclusion seems most unlikely. Mam-
mals and dinosaurs had coexisted for
100 million years, and mammals had
remained rat-sized or smaller, making
no evolutionary ÒmoveÓ to oust dino-
saurs. No good argument for mammal-
ian prevalence by general superiority
has ever been advanced, and fortuity
seems far more likely. As one plausible
argument, mammals may have survived
partly as a result of their small size
(with much larger, and therefore extinc-
tion-resistant, populations as a conse-
quence, and less ecological specializa-
tion with more places to hide, so to
speak ). Small size may not have been a
positive mammalian adaptation at all,
but more a sign of inability ever to pen-
etrate the dominant domain of dino-
saurs. Yet this ÒnegativeÓ feature of nor-
mal times may be the key reason for
mammalian survival and a prerequisite
to my writing and your reading this ar-
ticle today.

S
igmund Freud often remarked
that great revolutions in the his-
tory of science have but one com-

mon, and ironic, feature: they knock
human arrogance oÝ one pedestal after
another of our previous conviction about
our own self-importance. In FreudÕs
three examples, Copernicus moved our
home from center to periphery; Darwin
then relegated us to Òdescent from an
animal worldÓ; and, Þnally ( in one of
the least modest statements of intellec-
tual history), Freud himself discovered
the unconscious and exploded the
myth of a fully rational mind.

In this wise and crucial sense, the
Darwinian revolution remains woefully
incomplete because, even though think-
ing humanity accepts the fact of evolu-
tion, most of us are still unwilling to

abandon the comforting view that evo-
lution means (or at least embodies a
central principle of ) progress deÞned
to render the appearance of something
like human consciousness either virtu-
ally inevitable or at least predictable.
The pedestal is not smashed until we
abandon progress or complexiÞcation
as a central principle and come to en-
tertain the strong possibility that H.
sapiens is but a tiny, late-arising twig on
lifeÕs enormously arborescent bushÑa
small bud that would almost surely not
appear a second time if we could re-
plant the bush from seed and let it grow
again.

Primates are visual animals, and the
pictures we draw betray our deepest
convictions and display our current
conceptual limitations. Artists have al-
ways painted the history of fossil life
as a sequence from invertebrates, to
Þshes, to early terrestrial amphibians
and reptiles, to dinosaurs, to mammals
and, Þnally, to humans. There are no
exceptions; all sequences painted since
the inception of this genre in the 1850s
follow the convention.

Yet we never stop to recognize the al-
most absurd biases coded into this uni-
versal mode. No scene ever shows an-
other invertebrate after Þshes evolved,
but invertebrates did not go away or
stop evolving! After terrestrial reptiles
emerge, no subsequent scene ever
shows a Þsh (later oceanic tableaux de-
pict only such returning reptiles as ich-
thyosaurs and plesiosaurs). But Þshes
did not stop evolving after one small
lineage managed to invade the land. In
fact, the major event in the evolution
of Þshes, the origin and rise to domi-
nance of the teleosts, or modern bony
Þshes, occurred during the time of the
dinosaurs and is therefore never shown
at all in any of these sequencesÑeven
though teleosts include more than half
of all species of vertebrates. Why should
humans appear at the end of all se-

quences? Our order of primates is an-
cient among mammals, and many oth-
er successful lineages arose later than
we did.

We will not smash FreudÕs pedestal
and complete DarwinÕs revolution until
we Þnd, grasp and accept another way
of drawing lifeÕs history. J.B.S. Haldane
proclaimed nature Òqueerer than we can
suppose,Ó but these limits may only be
socially imposed conceptual locks rath-
er then inherent restrictions of our neu-
rology. New icons might break the locks.
TreesÑor rather copiously and luxuri-
antly branching bushesÑrather than
ladders and sequences hold the key to
this conceptual transition.

We must learn to depict the full range
of variation, not just our parochial per-
ception of the tiny right tail of most
complex creatures. We must recognize
that this tree may have contained a
maximal number of branches near the
beginning of multicellular life and that
subsequent history is for the most part
a process of elimination and lucky sur-
vivorship of a few, rather than continu-
ous ßowering, progress and expansion
of a growing multitude. We must under-
stand that little twigs are contingent
nubbins, not predictable goals of the
massive bush beneath. We must remem-
ber the greatest of all Biblical state-
ments about wisdom: ÒShe is a tree of
life to them that lay hold upon her; and
happy is every one that retaineth her.Ó

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN October 1994 91

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