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Evolutionary Biology
Volume 43, Number 4, December 2016
ISSN 0071-3260

Evolutionary
Biology

Volume 43, Number 4, pp. 427–638

December 2016
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Evolutionary Biology
Editor-in-Chief
Benedikt Hallgrimsson, University of
Calgary, Canada
Associate Editors
R. Craig Albertson, University of
Massachusetts, MA, USA
Brian Hall, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
Campbell Rolian, University of Calgary, Canada
Charles C. Roseman, University of IL, USA
Katherine E. Willmore, Pennsylvania State
University, PA, USA
Editorial Board
Rebecca Ackerman, University of Capetown,
South Africa
James Cheverud, Washington University,
WA, USA
Niles Eldredge, American Museum of Natural
History, New York, NY, USA
Rebecca German, Johns Hopkins University,
Baltimore, MD, USA
Mark Johnston, Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Canada
Aris Katzourakis, University of Oxford, UK
Ellen Larsen, University of Toronto, Canada
Richard Lewontin, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA, USA
Daniel Lieberman, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA, USA
Ralph Marcucio, University of California,
San Francisco, CA, USA
Gerd Muller, University of Vienna, Austria
Richard Palmer, University of Alberta, Canada
Telmo Pievani, University of Milan, Italy
V. Louise Roth, Duke University, Durham,
NC, USA
Gerhard Scholtz, Humboldt-Universitaet zu
Berlin, Germany
Kathleen Smith, Duke University, Durham,
NC, USA
Mark Stoneking, Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany
Russell Tuttle, University of Chicago, IL, USA
Gunter P. Wagner, Yale University,
New Haven, CT, USA
David Wake, University of California,
Berkeley, CA, USA
Kenneth Weiss, Pennsylvania State
University, PA, USA
Miriam Zelditch, University of Michigan,
Amarbor, MI, USA
Aims and Scope
Evolutionary Biology publishes articles that
address issues and subjects of core concern
in evolutionary biology. The articles make
original contributions to our understanding of the
evolutionary process or to evolutionary questions
of general interest within evolutionary biology.
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Evolutionary Biology is published
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will be published in 2017.
ISSN: 0071-3260 print
ISSN: 1934-2845 electronic
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Evolutionary Biology
Volume 43 · Number 4 · December 2016
Special Issue on Evolutionary Patterns
Guest Editor: Nathalie Gontier
SYNTHESIS PAPERS
Guest-Editorial Introduction: Converging
Evolutionary Patterns in Life and Culture
N. Gontier 427
How to Rethink Evolutionary Theory: A Plurality
of Evolutionary Patterns
T. Pievani 446
Genealogies: Pedigrees and Phylogenies are
Reticulating Networks Not Just Divergent Trees
D.A. Morrison 456
Lateral and Vertical Transfer in Biology,
Linguistics and Anthropology: An Account
of Widely Neglected Ideas in the Formation of
Evolutionary Theories
F. Kressing 474
Cultural Evolution: A Review of Theory, Findings
and Controversies
A. Mesoudi 481
Navigating Disciplinary Boundaries: Script,
Games and the Role of Language
A. de Voogt 498
Origins of Life: Chemical and Philosophical
Approaches
V.M. Kolb 506
Patterns and Processes in Cultural Evolution
M. Bradie · J.L. Bouzat 516
Three Trends in the History of Life: An Evolutionary
Syndrome
D.W. McShea 531
From the Cell to the Ecosystem: The Physiological
Evolution of Symbiosis
R. Guerrero · M. Berlanga 543
Evolutionary Connectionism: Algorithmic Principles
Underlying the Evolution of Biological Organisation
in Evo-Devo, Evo-Eco and Evolutionary Transitions
R.A. Watson · R. Mills · C.L. Buckley · K. Kouvaris ·
A. Jackson · S.T. Powers · C. Cox · S. Tudge · A. Davies ·
L. Kounios · D. Power 553
Life With or Without Names
M. Casiraghi · A. Galimberti · A. Sandionigi · A. Bruno ·
M. Labra 582
The Symbiotic Self
J. Sapp 596
Time: The Biggest Pattern in Natural History Research
N. Gontier 604
Cover Design by Eveline Kolijn
Eveline Kolijn is a Dutch-Canadian artist whose interest in the
biological sciences and concern for the environment is expressed
through printmaking and sculptural installations made from
found synthetic materials.The cover image is available as an
original digital print. Size is 43 ¥ 33 cm, printed on archival
BFK Rives paper, signed and numbered from an edition
of 25. For more information and images of her art, visit
www.evelinekolijn.com
Further articles can be found at link.springer.com
Abstracts in Science Citation Index, Science Citation Index
Expanded (SciSearch), Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition,
SCOPUS, Google Scholar, Abstracts in Anthropology, Academic
OneFile, BIOSIS, BIOSIS Review Reports and Meetings,
EMBiology, Expanded Academic, GeoRef, Highbeam, Index to
Scientific Reviews, OCLC, SCImago, Summon by Serial
Solutions, Zoological Record
Instructions for Authors for Evol Biol are available at
http://www.springer.com/11692
Evol Biol (2016) 43
Evolutionary Biology – Cover Description
Volume 43 – Issue 4 (December 2016)
Cover Design by Eveline Kolijn
About the Cover
In my art, I explore forms and patterns in nature and the
relationship between our society and the natural environ-
ment. Inspiration for my work flows from the concept of
the Biosphere, of living matter being inseparably connect-
ed within the geological envelope of the earth. A related
concept is the Noösphere, or the conscious layer of life.
Vernadsky described the concept in 1945 as humanity’s
influence on the biosphere as a consequence of its thinking
capacity.
All drawings for the cover have been carefully rendered
with pencil. I have drawn the elements separately, scanned
them in high-resolution and digitally edited their size, color
and composition in Photoshop. The final image exists only
as a digital construct, even though it originated from hand-
drawn elements.
In the center are variant renderings of the phylogenetic
tree. I depicted a simplified version of the phylogenetic
ring as proposed by David Hillis, Derrick Zwickl and Rob-
in Gutell1. I also searched for a three-dimensional model,
in which the branches fan out at different heights according
to their depth in time, thus forming a cone. This construc-
tion was modeled by Tal Dagan2. Another attractive dia-
gram of evolution was proposed by
W. Ford Doolittle and depicts a reticulate network that
expresses the dynamics of lateral gene transfer3. I decided
to use all of these models nested into each other, revolving
around a vertical axis of DNA, because it is a key element
in most theories of evolution. The reticulate model, placed
lowest, doesn’t have a single point of origin, because
knowledge on the origin of life is still nebulous.
Fanning from this cone, like an evolutionary floral ar-
rangement, are many ideas. On the left are soap bubbles
that can create membranes due to their phospholipid struc-
ture. Vesicles could at some stage have enveloped RNA,
creating the first proto-cell. The interesting question re-
mains how genetic material became enveloped and what
came first: membranes or RNA? From there on, single-
celled organisms and protozoa evolved and through endo-
symbiosis mitochondria were formed. This stage occurred
before organisms absorbed photosynthesizing bacteria into
plastids, which are depicted in the upper right corner of the
image.
Also at the right, a playful idea of amoebas morphing into a
cultural pattern, such as the paisley. In the paisley you find
a symbol of the tree of life. This refers to the extension of
our biological evolution into cultural evolution and the
feedback loops between those systems. The noösphere, our
thinking capacity, is visualized on the left, where the phylo-
genetic web of life morphs into neurons, electronic compu-
ting pathways and miRNA’s. The evolution of data technol-
ogies extends the noösphere into cyberspace and raises in-
teresting parallels between digital information and genetic
code. The field of generative data visualizations is explod-
ing. The “Facebook Tree” in the lower left was designed by
Onformative. Its structure is generated through certain
types of social network interactions4.
Finally, from the center of the bouquet arises meiosis, cell
division for gametes and sexual reproduction that is the
primary mode of vertical gene transfer of our type of spe-
cies.
The cover image is available as an original digital print.
Size is 43 x 33 cms, printed on archival BFK Rives paper,
signed and numbered from an edition of 25.
About the Artist
Eveline Kolijn is a Dutch-Canadian artist whose interest in
the biological sciences and concern for the environment is
expressed through printmaking and sculptural installations
made from found synthetic materials. Her interests were
encouraged by an international childhood spent in France,
1
http://www.zo.utexas.edu/faculty/antisense/
downloadfilestol.html (accessed June 10, 2015)
2
T Dagan, Y Artzy-Randrup, W Martin. “Modular networks
and cumulative impact of lateral transfer in prokaryote ge-
nome evolution.” Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences 105 (29), 2008,10039-10044
3
Ford Doolittle, W. “Uprooting the Tree of Life.” Scientific
American, February 2000. 90-95
4
http://www.onformative.com/work/4010-facebook-tree/
(accessed June19, 2015)

Venezuela, Belgium, the Dutch Antilles, the Netherlands
and Australia.
Natural history has always permeated her life. She grew
up in the Caribbean, where she and her family collected and
corresponded on Caribbean shells, building an extensive
and well-documented collection. In 2008, the collection
was donated to Naturalis, the museum of natural history in
5 through the Arts program.
Leiden, the Netherlands . A variety of ideas on evolution
influenced her upbringing as well. From books on this topic
she absorbed images depicting visible and invisible life and
connected them with the forms and patterns found on the
beach and in the sea.
Eveline received a Master’s degree in cultural anthro-
pology from the Rijks Universiteit Leiden, The Nether-
lands, in 1986. In 1997 she immigrated to Canada and be-
came a Canadian citizen in 2003. In 2008 she completed a
Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Alberta College of
Art and Design and was recipient of the Governor Gen-
eral’s Academic medal. She has exhibited her art nationally
and internationally. Her art has been published in various
scientific publications, most recently on the June 2015 cov-
Evol Biol (2016) 43
er of Genome Research. She has presented on the relation-
ship between art and science at an EMBO conference in
Heidelberg in 2012. In 2013, she was an artist in residence
at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of South-
ern California. She is currently an Extended Studies instruc-
tor at the Alberta College of Art +Design in Calgary and a
teacher for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Learning
For more information and images of her art, visit
www.evelinekolijn.com

http://www.biorepositories.org/collection/view/98
(accessed June 10, 2015)

Genome Research Vol. 25 No. 6, 2015

Kolijn, Eveline. “Observation and Visualization: reflec-
tions on the relationship between science, visual arts and
the evolution of the scientific image.” Antonie van
Leeuwenhoek, 2013, Springer Science + Business media
Dordrecht. DOI 10.1007/s10482-013-9951-z