Embryos in Deep Time: The Rock Record of Biological Development

Epilogue: Is There a Moral to Developmental Paleontology?

195 The history of life is a history of change, and much of that is recorded by fossils in deep time, in which a vast diversity of organisms originated and waned. Is there a moral message to be drawn from this? Of course not. There is no moral intrinsic to a scientific fact or hypothesis. Not so long ago our understanding of evolution, including that of humans, was dominated by the idea of the selfish gene. More recently biological anthropologists have demonstrated that we humans are cooperative great apes and that this is biologically ingrained. This new knowledge of biology does not change the moral imperative we freely choose to guide us. Since all is change and since we will sooner or later be doomed, both individually and as a species, what is the point? Or forgetting the vastness of time—since we humans are nothing else than very singular great apes, nothing else than biology —why fight against our “nature”? Albert Camus saw comfort in the drive to keep going in spite of his existentialist conception of life. Sisyphus was condemned for all time to push a boulder ePilogUe Is There a Moral to Developmental Paleontology? 196 / Epilogue uphill, one that repeatedly rolled back to where it started. Let’s enjoy the pushing. Biology teaches no existential lessons but can lead to reflection . The vastness of time and the realization that the vastness of biodiversity makes us just one species in a huge tree of life inspire modesty. The vastness of life colors and change—that greatest show on earth—inspires awe. Environment and development are intertwined. The phenotype is not simply the result of the genotype. The environment can drive change in development ; even fossils, as incomplete as they are, show this if one knows how to read them. We humans represent only one branch of the huge tree of life—but one with the capacity to modify the environment with a speed that until now only major geologic events were capable of achieving. How we continue to influence the environment will determine the fate of all ontogenies around us: with modesty regarding what each of us can achieve, maybe acting locally to make a small contribution, driven by a moral imperative, independent from, or even in spite of, biology, chemistry, and physics. ...