A Morphospace Exploration Using a General Model of Development Reveals a Basic Set of Morphologies for Early Animal Development and Evolution

What morphologies are more likely to appear during evolution is a central question in zoology. Here we offer a novel approach to this question based on first developmental principles. We assumed that morphogenesis results from the genetic regulation of cell properties and behaviors (adhesion, contraction, etc.). We used EmbryoMaker, a general model of development that can simulate any gene network regulating cell properties and behaviors, the mechanical interactions and signaling between cells and the morphologies arising from those. We created spherical initial conditions with anterior and dorsal territories. We performed simulations changing the cell properties and behaviors regulated in these territories to explore which morphologies may have been possible. Thus, we obtained a set of the most basic animal morphologies that can be developmentally possible assuming very simple induction and morphogenesis. Our simulations suggest that elongation, invagination, evagination, condensation and anisotropic growth are the morphogenetic transformations more likely to appear from changes in cell properties and behaviors. We also found some parallels between our simulations and the morphologies of simple animals, some early stages of animal development and fossils attributed to early animals.