Inspired by Dawkins' notion of Universal Darwinism, biologists have been trying to prove that all sorts of evolution can be explained by a simple paradigm of random mutation and natural selection. Because of Dawkins' ardor to spread the word, many have no idea there's far more to discover about evolutionary mechanisms beyond natural selection.
One of these challenges to Dawkins' Universal Darwinism is called the endosymbiotic theory, popularized by Lynn Margulis in the 90s. She's known for her bold rejection of some neo-darwinian interpretations. For instance, she once predicted history will judge neo-darwinists as representatives of "a minor twentieth-century religious sect within the sprawling religious persuasion of Anglo-Saxon Biology", who "wallow in their zoological, capitalistic, competitive, cost-benefit interpretation of Darwin - having mistaken him". Instead, she advocates an evolutionary theory of life with a more human face. "Life didn't take over the globe by combat, but by networking".
What is endosymbiosis about? Endosymbiotic theory explains the origin of the five animal kingdoms. All living organisms can be classified under two forms: prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Prokaryotes are organisms composed of cells without a nucleus. Eukaryotes (animals, plants, fungi and protists) are made up of cells with a nucleus and they also contain organelles, specialzed subunites with specific funtions (best known are the mitochondria, sometimes referred to as "power plants" of the cell).
According to the endosymbiotic theory, these organelles originated as separate prokaryotic organisms who came to live inside one another, resulting a new extremely successful form of life, eukaryotes. Hence, endosymbiosis, literally rendered 'inner living together'.
Endosymbiosis is a non-darwinian mechanism that succeeds in explaining the origin of eukaryotic life and lays the foundation of a truly comprehensible theory of evolutionary morality. Human history has shown that a literal struggle for life is less beneficial for our species' future than cooperation and symbiosis.
