Согласно гипотезе д-ра Линн Маргулис, клетки, имеющие ядро (все клетки человеческого организма за одним исключением), возникли в результате
симбиоза между бактериями. Гипотеза бросала вызов неодарвинизму, полагавшему, что основной механизм эволюции - случайные мутации.
Dr. Margulis had the title of distinguished university professor of geosciences at the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, since 1988. She drew upon earlier, ridiculed ideas when she first promulgated her theory, in the late 1960s, that cells with nuclei, which are known as eukaryotes and include all the cells in the human body except mature red blood cells, evolved as a result of symbiotic relationships among bacteria.
The hypothesis was a direct challenge to the prevailing neo-Darwinist belief that the primary evolutionary mechanism was random mutation.
Rather, Dr. Margulis argued that a more important mechanism was symbiosis; that is, evolution is a function of organisms that are mutually beneficial growing together to become one and reproducing. The theory undermined significant precepts of the study of evolution, underscoring the idea that evolution began at the level of micro-organisms long before it would be visible at the level of species.
“She talked a lot about the importance of micro-organisms,” said her daughter, Jennifer Margulis. “She called herself a spokesperson for the microcosm.”
Источник (Некролог)