The evolution of multicellularity in animals as a shift in biological autonomy

Abstract

The hypothesis is advanced that major evolutionary innovations are characterized by an increase of organismal autonomy in the sense of an emancipation from the environment. After a brief overview of the literature on this concept, increasing autonomy is defined as the evolutionary shift in the individual system–environment relationship, so that the direct influences of the environment are gradually reduced and a stabilization of self-referential, intrinsic functions within the system is generated. This is described as relative autonomy because numerous interconnections with the environment and dependencies upon it are retained. Elements of an increasing autonomy are spatial separations, an increase in homeostatic functions, internalizations and an increase in physiological and behavioral flexibility. These elements are described by taking the transition from single cells to metazoans as a case study. The principle of increasing autonomy is of central relevance for understanding this transition. The hypothesis does not contradict the principle of adaptation, but rather contributes to a further understanding of its elements as it supplies aspects for a reconsideration of the relationship between the outside and the inside, between organism and environment.