“Computer programs designed to ‘evolve’ solutions to mathematical problems support the idea that complexity in nature emerges in small, often apparently unremarkable, steps. Complex biological organisms are thought to develop through a series of intermediary evolutionary adaptations, rather than in single giant evolutionary leaps.

“The researchers say their computer model will let biologists study individual evolutionary steps for the first time.”

Artificial Life Experiments Show How Complex Functions Can Evolve (National Science Foundation press release)