Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Evolutionary Emergence

Evolutionary emergence refers to the appearance of novel biological structures, functions, or higher-level organisation that arise through evolutionary processes and cannot be fully predicted from the properties of lower-level components alone. It encompasses the origination of new traits, body plans, species, and l…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 5 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 42× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2689-4602 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

Evolutionary emergence refers to the appearance of novel biological structures, functions, or higher-level organisation that arise through evolutionary processes and cannot be fully predicted from the properties of lower-level components alone. It encompasses the origination of new traits, body plans, species, and levels of biological complexity as interactions among genes, cells, organisms, and environments generate outcomes greater than the sum of their parts. The concept links developmental and genetic mechanisms to macroevolutionary novelty, addressing how variation is produced and channelled, how new adaptations and lineages come into being, and how transitions in organisation occur. Research connected to this topic includes models of speciation and the proposed role of ontogenes in regulating development, reassessments of the Darwinian framework, and the molecular evolution of emerging pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, where new viral variants exemplify evolutionary novelty in real time. Understanding evolutionary emergence requires integrating population genetics, developmental biology, and phylogenetics to explain how heritable change accumulates, how reproductive isolation forms, and how qualitatively new biological features become established. It remains central to debates about the predictability, directionality, and creative capacity of evolution.

Research published in this journal

5 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

2019

Ontogenes and the Problem of Speciation

F Chadov BorisCorresponding author
Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Department of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russian Federation.
Evolutionary Science Cited by 15 doi:10.14302/issn.2689-4602.jes-18-2431

How this research is being cited

The 5 articles above have been cited 42 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Evolutionary Emergence, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in Evolutionary Science (ISSN 2689-4602).

Journal editorial board
Maria Luisa Chiusano · Italy Adina-Elena Segneanu · Romania George Mikhailovsky · United States

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.