Mostly stemming from closed parallel systems, coordination models and technologies gained in scope and expressive power so as to deal with complex distributed systems. In particular, in the last decade nature-inspired coordination (NIC) models emerged as the most effective approaches to tackle the complexity of pervasive, intelligent, and self-* systems. In this review paper we discuss their evolution, by analysing the main motivations behind the research effort on NIC, the foremost features of the most successful models, and the key issues and challenges they bring along.