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Open-ended versus bounded evolution: Mineral evolution as a case study.

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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Mineral evolution, like other natural systems, is bounded, not open-ended. The study shows increasing "functional information" in minerals over billions of years, nearing a maximum limit.

Keywords:
complex systemsevolutionfunctional informationmineral evolutionopen-ended evolution

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Area of Science:

  • Geochemistry
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Complex Systems

Background:

  • Naturally evolving systems can be either bounded or open-ended in their diversity.
  • Minerals offer a quantitative model for studying evolving systems over geological timescales.
  • A unified framework suggests evolving systems exhibit combinatorial richness constrained by selection.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if mineral evolution is bounded or open-ended.
  • To test the hypothesis that "functional information" increases in evolving systems.
  • To assess if mineral diversity is approaching a limit.

Main Methods:

  • Quantified mineral diversity increases across nine stages of planetary evolution.
  • Estimated the fraction of observed mineral formulas within the "possibility space" of element combinations.
  • Calculated "functional information" (negative log2 of the fraction) for each stage.

Main Results:

  • Observed mineral species represent a tiny fraction of all possible element configurations.
  • A monotonic increase in "functional information" was found across the nine stages of mineral evolution.
  • Modern Earth's mineral system appears to be approaching its maximum functional information limit.

Conclusions:

  • Mineral evolution is a bounded system, not open-ended.
  • The increase in "functional information" supports the hypothesis for evolving systems.
  • The Earth's mineralogy may be reaching a state of maximum complexity and diversity.