A general theory of evolution. By means of selection by density dependent competitive interactions.

Lars Witting

Abstract: During evolution on Earth there has been a directional change where self-replicating molecules have evolved into large multicellular organisms with high metabolic rates and complex behavioural interactions. Associated with this increase there has been a transition from an asomatic, non-senescing, haploid, and asexually reproducing organism to a somatic, senescing, diploid, and sexually reproducing organism. In a few cases there has been an additional transition to eusocial communities.

Despite this directional increase in complexity evolutionists since Darwin have agreed that evolution by natural selection is historical and non-directional. However, in this book the author develops a new theory suggesting for the first time that evolution by natural selection is inherently directional in the mentioned directions. The theory developed also provides the first explanation for the body mass allometries that describe the major life-histories across mobile organisms, and it provides a single-species mechanism for the population cycles that have fascinated ecologists for decades.

The proposed theory is based on selection by density dependent competitive interactions and on a new concept of evolutionary stability in all phenotypic dimensions. This concept invalidates the classical theories because their equilibria are evolutionarily unstable in their phenotypic assumptions. Based on a new causality the author reestablishes the classical equilibria, but in an improved form that is evolutionarily stable.