Chance and necessity: the evolution of morphological complexity and diversity

@article{Carroll2001ChanceAN,
  title={Chance and necessity: the evolution of morphological complexity and diversity},
  author={Sean B Carroll},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2001},
  volume={409},
  pages={1102-1109}
}
  • S. Carroll
  • Published 22 February 2001
  • Biology, Medicine
  • Nature
The primary foundation for contemplating the possible forms of life elsewhere in the Universe is the evolutionary trends that have marked life on Earth. For its first three billion years, life on Earth was a world of microscopic forms, rarely achieving a size greater than a millimetre or a complexity beyond two or three cell types. But in the past 600 million years, the evolution of much larger and more complex organisms has transformed the biosphere. Despite their disparate forms and… Expand
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