EVENTS

STOQ 2009 – THE STOQ INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
«BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION. Facts and Theories»

Abstracts of the Lectures:

Simon Conway Morris, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

Why Evolution is Predictable: Journeys of a Palaeontologist

Darwin understood the central importance of the fossil record to his theory of evolution, and since then the many extraordinary finds have dramatically confirmed the genius of his insights. Nevertheless, whilst the reality of evolution is not in dispute problems remain. Darwin himself was very puzzled by the event now known as the Cambrian "explosion" and it is notable that in The Origin this is the one area where, in terms of explanation, he is almost entirely at sea. We know much more about the Cambrian "explosion", but a general explanation is still needed. Perhaps we need to take a wider view as to how Earth-like planets may evolve in a biogeochemical context. But the Cambrian "explosion" is also of central importance because it marks the emergence of complex nervous and sensory systems, and ultimately brains and intelligence. It is received wisdom in nearly all neo-Darwinian circles that these, like any other evolutionary end-point, are effectively flukes, mere accidents of history. Such resonates, of course, with the emphasis on randomness, be it in terms of mutation or mass extinctions. Stephen Jay Gould observed, using the famous Burgess Shale as his exemplar, that were we to re-run the tape of life then the end-products would be completely different. No humans, for example. Drawing on evolutionary convergence I will argue for the complete opposite, and in doing so will suggest that evolution is like any other science, that is predictable.