Data from: Are ant supercolonies crucibles of a new major transition in evolution?

The biological hierarchy of genes, cells, organisms and societies is a fundamental reality in the living world. This hierarchy of entities did not arise ex nihilo at the origin of life, but rather has been serially generated by a succession of critical events known as ‘evolutionary transitions in individuality’ (ETIs). Given the sequential nature of ETIs, it is natural to look for candidates to form the next hierarchical tier. We analyse claims that these candidates are found among ‘supercolonies’, ant populations in which discrete nests cooperate as part of a wider collective, in ways redolent of cells in a multicellular organism. Examining earlier empirical work and new data within the recently proposed ‘Darwinian space’ framework, we offer a novel analysis of the evolutionary status of supercolonies and show how certain key conditions might be satisfied in any future process transforming these collaborative networks into true Darwinian individuals.

基因、细胞、生物体乃至社会的生物层级结构，是生命世界中一项基础的客观实在。这类实体层级结构并非在生命起源时无中生有，而是通过一系列被称为‘个体进化跃迁（evolutionary transitions in individuality，ETIs）’的关键事件依次演化形成。鉴于ETIs具有序列性特征，自然可以探寻能够构成下一层级结构的候选对象。我们针对‘超级蚁群’——即不同独立蚁巢作为更大集体的组成部分协同合作的蚂蚁种群，其运作方式与多细胞生物体内的细胞颇为相似——即为这类候选对象的相关主张展开分析。我们借助新近提出的‘达尔文空间（Darwinian space）’框架，对过往实证研究与全新数据展开梳理，对超级蚁群的进化地位提出全新分析，并阐明在未来将这类协同网络转化为真正达尔文个体的过程中，哪些关键条件能够得到满足。