Is evolution fundamental when it comes to defining biological ontology? Yes

To make a case for an affirmative answer to the title question I should say something about what ontology, especially biological ontology, is; Something about what sort of criteria we might use in evaluating different approaches to defining biological ontology; And, finally, what it would mean to take evolution as fundamental in the latter activity. Most of the discussion will center on a particular item of biological ontology – the individual – and on the merits of an evolutionary definition of that item, as opposed to a metabolic definition.