There is an ecology within the individual organism, a community of genes in the gene pool of a species. The forces that produce harmony among the parts of an organism’s body are not wholly unlike the forces that produce the illusion of harmony in the species of a coral reef. There is balance in a rainforest, structure in a reef community, an elegant meshing of parts that recalls co-adaptation within an animal body. In neither case is the balanced unit favoured as a unit by Darwinian selection. In both cases the balance comes about through selection at a lower level. Selection doesn’t favour a
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