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The major evolutionary transitions

Nature volume 374, pages 227–232 (1995)Cite this article

Abstract

There is no theoretical reason to expect evolutionary lineages to increase in complexity with time, and no empirical evidence that they do so. Nevertheless, eukaryotic cells are more complex than prokaryotic ones, animals and plants are more complex than protists, and so on. This increase in complexity may have been achieved as a result of a series of major evolutionary transitions. These involved changes in the way information is stored and transmitted.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collegium Budapest (Institute for Advanced Study), Szentharomsag u. 2., H-1014, Budapest

    Eörs Szathmáry

  2. Ecological Modelling Research Group, Department of Plant Taxonomy and Ecology, Eotvos University, Ludovika ter 2, H-1083, Budapest, Hungary

    Eörs Szathmáry

  3. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK

    John Maynard Smith

Authors
  1. Eörs Szathmáry
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  2. John Maynard Smith
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Szathmáry, E., Smith, J. The major evolutionary transitions. Nature 374, 227–232 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1038/374227a0

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