Geerat Vermeij
University of California, Davis, CA, USAGeerat Vermeij is well-known for his work on the arms race between predators and prey, and its effect on morphology, ecology and evolution. He focuses on molluscs, living and fossil, and is also interested in the relationship between biogeography and climate. Professor Vermeij has published a large number of articles and five books, including Evolution and Escalation: An Ecological History of Life; Nature and Economic History and the autobiographical Privileged Hands: A Scientific Life.
ABSTRACTAn evolutionary collusion: how enemies create history
One of Darwin's great insights is that the selective regimes to which organisms are exposed and adapted are due to living agents. Although many evolutionists deny that selection imparts an arrow of time to the history of life, I argue that competition for scarce resources particularly favors the establishment of positive feedbacks linking consumers to resources, and that successive, competitively dominant lineages achieve increasing power and reach even as their resources become more productive. Life, led by competitive enemies, creates its own opportunities through the action of selection, and collectively makes the world more predictable and therefore more accessible to adaptation.
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