ANIMALIA (METAZOA)
THE LINE DIMENSION, FOUNDATION OF MOVEMENT, AND ANIMAL NEUROPHYSIOLOGY
The emergence of movement can be considered as the evolution of life from its origin where it persisted at a point in time to a state where it could move. Initially, this was restricted to a single dimension, in essence, movement along a line. The first iterations were variants of expansion and contraction of the core of the organism. A slug exemplifies this type of movement. The required sensory and cognitive elements facilitating this method of movement are foundational, expressing an intention no more complex than a simple directive to move, based on the gamble that there are more energetic resources to be gained than expended from the energetic investment. As these creations are the foundation of all of the more complex forms of Animals that have existed, they were quite right to gamble on the benefits of movement.
Evolving from spatially dimensionless persistence to spatial dimensional expression is truly a paradigm shift. It is hard to visualize how the creative force of the Living System could gamble the immense investment of resources for a potential energetic gain that transformation into creatures that move required. Living Things must have exceedingly mastered the point dimension (Time) to invest in the extensive experimentation to test for another dimensional opportunity. The energetic “hump” between the temporal and spatial dimensions took billions of years to traverse, but once crossed resulted in the explosion of animal forms we observe in the fossil record.
Here is a fun article from Science Magazine that talks about what it was like for our ancestors at the beginning of the era of animals:
SAVING FOSSIL HILL
Linear movement is discussed here within two distinct evolutionary paradigms. In this section on animals, linear movement is foundational, purely reflexive, and based on sensing conditions at the boundary of the organism. However, linear movement evolved to much greater levels of complexity, which are discussed in the next section on Vertebrates, where movement is much more complex, intentional and integrates visual processing.
Movement is perhaps the single largest evolutionary leap and required the development of specialized tissues for both movement (muscle tissue/Mesoderm) and tissues to figure out the most primitive sensing and cognition – the how/where/why of action (nerve tissue/Ectoderm). These tissues overlay and are supported by the core Endoderm, which is the origin cellular form most closely related to All Living Things. These specialized tissue types, in turn, support the Endoderm by enabling access to new sources of energy and novel tactics for reproduction. These tissue types are elemental to the neurophysiology of animals, and express in us in visible ratios:
SOMATOTYPES
DISCUSSION ON MOVEMENT
Movement requires not only some form of actuation of movement but also some form of control mechanism. The origins of our mechanisms of control are still embedded in our neurophysiology as our primitive reflexes. This is discussed here:
DEVELOPMENTAL REFLEXES
Although Movement has continued to evolve more complex expressions (consider the complex motor functions of a Pianist), it’s origins are expressed in the root of all animals. Discussion of movement as expressed in our neurophysiology as well as our evolutionary lineage:
MOVEMENT
and an overview of our core functions of movement, which are established upon movement along a line:
LOCOMOTIVE CORE
CREATION ARCHETYPE
Another model for studying the framework within which our lineage evolved is to make distinctions about the themes of each evolutionary leap. These distinctions are discussed here as Archetypes. The Archetype which correlates to the emergence of animals is described here as the:
CREATION ARCHETYPE
PROTECTION
The protective responses of original animals expressed as freeze or contraction of the core. This mechanism is still expressed in our neurophysiology as our Fear/Paralysis reflex, or Freeze. Discussion on this here:
FREEZE/CONTRACTION
NEXT EVOLUTIONARY LEAP IN OUR HUMAN JOURNEY
VERTEBRATE LINEAGE