Hypothetical Largest-scale Trends
McShea (1998) discusses eight features of organisms that might indicate largest-scale trends in evolution:
- entropy
- energy intensiveness
- evolutionary versatility
- developmental depth
- structural depth
- adaptedness
- size
- complexity
He calls these "live hypotheses", meaning that trends in these features are currently being considered by evolutionary biologists. McShea observes that the most popular hypothesis, among scientists, is that there is a largest-scale trend towards increasing complexity.
Read more about this topic: Evolutionary Progress
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