THE CAMINACULE EXQUISITE CORPSE (an evolution project)

Evolution by natural selection is a lot unlike the popular Surrealist parlor game, the “Exquisite Corpse.”  In both cases alterations & mutations build up blindly, cumulatively, and with very unpredictable outcomes.  In the case of organic evolution, the results can be things such as: jellyfish, the platypus, giant tortoises, butterflies, sequoias, and human Surrealists themselves. 

Developing this idea further, I took it to one of my Evolution and Biodiversity class’ at SAIC in Fall of 2005 and we tried it out over the course of half a semester.

- THE PROCESS

Students broke into groups representing selective environments, and selected only six of an initial population of 29 organisms known as called “Caminacules.” (These fictitious organisms were created in 1983 by Joseph Camin of the University of Kansas for his own study of how practicing taxonomists classify organisms and infer their evolutionary relationships).

The selected Caminacules were then taken by a set of independent “mutator” students who altered the organisms.  The next class period a novel group of students selected on consensus from a new population of 45 mutants, passing the 15 surviving individuals to a new set students for another generation of mutation. 

- THE CREATURES

The 145 mutant Caminacules produced during three generations of mutation and selection is too difficult to show in total.  Instead, a sample “phylogeny,” or evolutionary tree, of the process was exhibited.

A computer mock-up of the completed mixed media wall piece (40 inches x 21 inches) can be found here.

Interestingly, a number of patterns found in the evolution of life on earth are manifest in the experimental evolution of these organisms.   For example, Cope’s Rule – the mean increase in body size in a lineage over evolutionary time -- is evident.  Likewise, divergence from common developmental “body plans” (or ‘Bauplane’) can be seen in the upper right, where a same ancestral appendage is the rudiment of the head in one case, and a tail-like structure in the other!

- LINKS

For copies of the original Caminacules, click here.   For examples of how these fitional creatures have been used in the study of the methods by which evolutionary trees are constructed, click here.

For more information on how to try this particular porject in your own classes, please fell free to email me!

- Participating Students/Artists

William Block, Kate Lawroski, Carissa Owens, Dan Garrick, Jon Yorker, Paul Walter Simmons, Kathryn Johnson, Andres Laracuente, Adrian Tone, James Milne, Chris Mansour, Peggy Skemp, Vanessa Smith, Simon Spartalian, Adrean Vargas, Beatrice Smigasiewicz