JeanChalineAbstracts

Jean Chaline, Emeritus Director in CNRS, CNRS Dijon, France

Chaline, Jean. 2009. Does species evolution follow scale laws? First applications of the Scale Relativity Theory to Fossil and Living-beings. Foundations of Science, Special Issue of the Conference on the Evolution and Development of the Universe (EDU-2008). In press. http://evodevouniverse.com/EDU2008Papers/ChalineSpeciesEvolutionandScaleLawsEDU2008.pdf.

We have demonstrated, using the Cantor dust method, that the statistical distribution of appearance and disappearance of rodent species (Arvicolid rodent radiation in Europe) follows power laws, strengthening the evidence for a fractal structure set. Self-similar laws have been used as a model for the description of a large number of biological systems. With Nottale we have shown that log-periodic behaviors of acceleration or deceleration can be applied to branching macroevolution, to the time sequences of major evolutionary leaps (sauropod and theropod dinosaur postural structures, North American fossil equids, rodents, primates, echinoderms clades and human ontogeny). The Scale-Relativity Theory has other potential biological applications, from linear with fractal behavior to non-linear behavior, and from classical mechanics to quantum mechanics.