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Symbiogenesis. A new principle of evolution rediscovery of Boris Mikhaylovich Kozo-Polyansky (1890–1957)

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Abstract

The following is a heavily edited transcript of my illustrated lecture, that included our 14 minute video (with a 2 minute animation model) that shows each step in live organisms hypothesized in the origin of nucleated cells from bacteria (“eukaryosis”). New observations presented with modern examples of live phenomena make us virtually certain that B.M. Kozo-Polyansky’s “new principle” (1924) of the importance of symbiogenesis in the evolutionary process of at least 2000 million years of life on Earth is correct. The widely touted but undocumented explanation of the origin of evolutionary novelty by “gradual accumulation of random mutations” will be considered an erroneous early 20th century hunch proffered primarily by Englishmen, North Americans and other anglophones. They (Neodarwinist “explanations”) will be replaced by the details of symbiogenesis: genetic mergers especially speciation by genome acquisition, karyotypic fissions (neocentromere formation, related chromosome change) and D.I. Williamson’s larval transfer concept for animals. Although ignored and dismissed in his life time, Kozo-Polyansky’s brilliant work will be lauded for symbiogenesis in the same style that Gregor Mendel’s studies of inheritance of “factors” in peas was for recognition of his establishment of diploid organism genetic principles by the beginning of the 20th century. My talk, photographs and moving pictures were presented at the Darwin conference, St. Petersburg, on September 23, 2009 introduced by E. Kolchinsky.

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Margulis, L. Symbiogenesis. A new principle of evolution rediscovery of Boris Mikhaylovich Kozo-Polyansky (1890–1957). Paleontol. J. 44, 1525–1539 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0031030110120087

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