[Fractal structures in living beings and the evolutionary process ]

Fractal structures of living beings are discussed in the aspect of the directionality, i.e., programmed nature, of the evolutionary process. These theses are substantiated by analyzing the alternative views of Darwinism and Nomogenesis on the nature of biological evolution, in the context of the interdisciplinary approach, using the fractal concept, as well as based on the nature of the chaotic (fractal) attractors bearing non-random order-generating sequences. Apparently, along with the influence of natural selection representing the adaptive stage of evolution, the non-random order-generating sequences are the governing factor of the directionality and the programmed nature of biological evolution, thus representing its progressive form. A number of questionable and complicated problems and phenomena of the evolution of organic world that are difficult to explain by Darwinism, Nomogenetic theory, or by the Synthetic Theory of Evolution are discussed from this viewpoint. These are, in particluar, the nature of polymorphic series in plants and animals, M. Eigen's hypercycles, and Vavilov's homologous series in hereditary variation.