About Ability of Wildlife to Self-development

Fomin Yu.M.

By the example of one of the groups of ancient colonial corals we made an attempt to identify the initial causes and patterns of evolutionary transformation over time.

At the turn of the Middle and Upper Ordovician periods (~ 448 million years ago) on the territory of  Central Siberia an active process of superdeep  magmatism began [5, 6]. In the  sea basin that existed at that time in the region chemical elements began to come from the Earth's sublithospheric geospheres in excess [5], including carbon, oxygen, calcium, which are known to be the components of carbonates, that is, of the substance which is the skeletal structure of corals. Perhaps, the following change in the composition of sea water contributed to the fact that  primitive living tabulatomorphic corals, which include lichenariid corals, were subject to activation of the process of combining autonomous skeletogenous cells in compact formations, for which we proposed the name "skeletogenous cell complexes" (SCC ). [4] As a result zooids in colonies started to separate from each other not by solid walls, but  by septa, consisting of closely spaced "pillars" called "baculs" [4]. Each bacul was produced by  one SCC,  and, therefore, cross-sectional area of one bacul corresponds to the area of one SCC. The above-mentioned transformations led to the emergence of a new group of corals, which was called "cyrtophillids" that were existing for about 9 million years (Fig. 1).

We have carried out a detailed study of the earliest cyrtophillids collected from the basal layer of the Upper Ordovician period in the above-mentioned region, and it has shown that they differed from each other by bacul parameters, and, therefore, by SCC parameters, as well as by their number along the perimeter of corallites. The fact that these differences were due to different thickness of  corralite walls in  their ancestors – lichenariid corals - relics of which were found in the colonies of early cyrtophillids,  is of particular interest. On the basis of this observation, we managed to divide all the early cyrtophillids  from this layer into several groups. Table 1 shows the data on two of them, which are the most comprehensively presented in terms of quantity.

Table 1 shows that even a very small difference in the wall thickness of lichenariid corallites  caused  various parameters and number of cyrtophillids' SCC. These differences may be explained by the fact that different number of  skeletogenous  cells could participate in generation of SCC.  Apparently, the thicker the walls of lichenariid corallites were, the greater number of cells was involved in their "construction" and, therefore, the greater number of them could be grouped together in one SCC.

It is known that every cell is a micro-generator of energy, which means that taking all necessary resources from the environment it can generate energy within itself, and this energy helps it to a significant extent exist autonomously and independently from the environment. As a result of  experimental researches, carried out in the A.N. Belozersky Research Institute  of Physico-Chemical Biology MSU ( Moscow State University), Pushchino Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of RAS and St. Petersburg Institute of Cytology of RAS, the discovery of exceptional importance was made, notably the fact of "energy cooperation"  between cells was established. At that  a phenomenon called "leader effect" was discovered, which means that  "between the energy parameters of active and inactive cells values  inherent to the most active cells are maintained rather than arithmetical mean values" [2].

Thus, appearance of SCC meant that generating capacity of compact cellular associations of cells that performed the same function, in comparison with the total energy of the same number of autonomous cells, has a much greater value. [2] Naturally, larger SCC have a greater generating capacity.  Apparently, cyrtophillids  even at a very early stage of their development, differed from each other by the amount of their energy potential. So, cyrtophillids of the II group (see Table 1) probably had a greater energy potential than cyrtophillids of the I group. In the course of time the energy potential in the colonies of cyrtophillid was growing. Obviously, this was associated with the SCC  increase.

In the process of examining cyrtophillids in the course of time it was found that parameters of SCC  changed towards their increase, which is evidenced by a progressive growth of baculs in the radial direction and turning them into vertically standing plates – "coenosepta" [4]. At that,  corallites kept moving away from each other, and the intervals between them were filled with  "bubble tissue," which was made with ectoderm of the newly formed interzoid tissue - "coenosarc." The nature of this process is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1 shows that in the course of time SCC  parameters and, therefore, the energy potential of colonial organisms - cyrtophillids- was increasing. This was happening explosively at regular time intervals: in ~ 1.8 million years for cyrtophillids of the I group, in about 1.4 million years for cyrtophillids of the II group. The layer-by-layer study of cyrtophillids has shown that within the specified time intervals sizes of SCC and, therefore, the value of the energy potential did not change. Naturally, the morphology of the  colonial structure didn’t change either. That means that  these were the periods of stable state of cyrtophillids. Apparently, the change in energy, followed by morphological innovations in the colonies, took place between the periods of stabilization. According to our calculations these were short (in geological terms) time intervals from 100 to 200 thousand years, when, perhaps, the active growth of SCC took place, which led to "rapid" increase of energy potential of the colony. In both groups there were four such periods of activation (see Fig. 1). It should be noted that during the time interval of 100-200 thousand years only 1-2 meters of precipitation could be accumulated, and, consequently, finding of such layers, containing the so-called "transitional forms", requires detailed research.

Thus, the evolutionary process for these representatives of the organic world was not permanent, but it was a natural rhythmic alternation of relatively "short" periods of SCC growth activation with “rapid” morphological new formations, and long periods of stable existence.

Moreover, the following fact is of particular interest: under the same environmental existence conditions for cyrtophillids of both groups the rate of growth of their energy potential was different (see Fig. 1). This suggests that these rates depended only on the internal capacity of the colonial organism, namely on the initial value of the energy potential (see Table 1, Fig. 1). Probably for the same reason, the growth of energy for representatives of the I and the II groups decreased differently in time: for cyrtophillids of the I group decrease started after 5 million years, and for the ones of the II group it started after  6 million years (see Fig. 1).

What was the meaning of increase in time of the energy potential in the evolution of cyrtophillids? In the course of layer-by-layer study of cyrtophillids it has been established  that in the course of time there was a  differentiation of tissues and functions in their colonies. An illustrative example is the transformation taking place in the corallites, namely gradual development of a so-called "septal unit" on the fringes in the form of  "spines that  protrude into the intracavity of the corallites." Appearance of the latter meant formation of "pockets" in the soft walls of zooids, in the recesses of which digestive cells might be concentrated. Parameters of "pockets" gradually increased, and, ultimately, zooid cavities divided into two parts: the central one - "pharyngeal" and the  peripheral one - "digestive." Parallel to this, a new tissue –  coenosarc -   was formed between zooids.  Areas that we call  "internal fields" were gradually formed in it. In them  new zooids started developing. That is, these areas started to perform the breeding function, while the rest of coenosarc performed the function of distribution of nutrients between zooids. All of the above is an illustration of a well-known statement  of the biological science that "differentiation of tissues and functions is the most important aspect of progressive evolution". [1]

Conclusions:
1. At the heart of evolutionary transformation there is a progressive increase of cellular energy, which is the evidence of ability of wildlife to self-development.
2. Naturally rhythmic character of evolutionary transformations over time questions a diffused opinion of "random" mutations of genes as the original cause of evolution. [3]

References.

1. Beklemeshev V.N.  Principals of Comparative Anatomy of Invertebrates. Publishing House "Science," Moscow, 1964.
2. Potapova T. Secrets of Neurospora. "In the World of Science." Biology, № 9, 2004.
3. Soviet Encyclopedia. Moscow, "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1984.
4. Fomin Yu.M. Cellular Energy is the Engine of Organic World Evolution.  www.proza.ru/2012/02/24/806.
5. Fomin Yu.M. Development of the Earth and Kimberlite Magmatism. www.proza.ru/2011/02/18/1174.
6. Kharkiv A.D., Zuenko V.V., Zinchuk N.N., et al. Petrochemistry of Kimberlites. Moscow, "Nedra", 1991.