How evolution learns to generalise: Using the principles of learning theory to understand the evolution of developmental organisation
Fig 5
Generalised developmental organisations improve the rate of adaptation to novel selective environments.
Boxplot of the generations taken for the evolved developmental systems to reach the target phenotype for all potential selective environments under different evolutionary conditions. The developmental architecture is kept fixed and only the direct effects on the embryonic phenotype are free to evolve. Organisms that facilitate generalised phenotypic distributions, such as the ones evolved in noisy environments or under the direct pressure on the cost connections, adapt faster to novel selective environments exhibiting enhanced evolvability. The outliers indicate the inability of the corresponding evolved developmental structures to reach that selective target due to strong developmental constraints.