Topological Patterns in Metazoan Evolution and Development

Abstract

Topological patterns in the development and evolution of metazoa, from sponges to chordates, are considered by means of previously elaborated methodology, with the genus of the surface used as a topological invariant. By this means metazoan morphogenesis may be represented as topological modification(s) of the epithelial surfaces of an animal body. The animal body surface is an interface between an organism and its environment, and topological transformations of the body surface during metazoan development and evolution results in better distribution of flows to and from the external medium, regarded as the source of nutrients and oxygen and the sink of excreta, so ensuring greater metabolic intensity. In sponges and some Cnidaria, the increase of this genus up to high values and the shaping of topologically complicated fractal-like systems are evident. In most Bilateria, a stable topological pattern with a through digestive tube is formed, and the subsequent topological complications of other systems can also appear. The present paper provides a topological interpretation of some developmental events through the use of well-known mathematical concepts and theorems; the relationship between local and global orders in metazoan development, i.e., between local morphogenetic processes and integral developmental patterns, is established. Thus, this methodology reveals a "topological imperative": A certain set of topological rules that constrains and directs biological morphogenesis.