Typology Now: Homology and Developmental Constraints Explain Evolvability

Biology and Philosophy, Vol. 22, pp. 709-725, 2007

35 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2007

See all articles by Ingo Brigandt

Ingo Brigandt

University of Alberta - Department of Philosophy

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.

Keywords: homology, explanation, theoretical integration, evolution, development

Suggested Citation

Brigandt, Ingo, Typology Now: Homology and Developmental Constraints Explain Evolvability. Biology and Philosophy, Vol. 22, pp. 709-725, 2007, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1070083

Ingo Brigandt (Contact Author)

University of Alberta - Department of Philosophy ( email )

2-40 Assiniboia Hall
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E7
Canada

HOME PAGE: http://www.ualberta.ca/~brigandt

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