Emergence of species and punctuated equilibrium in the Tangle Nature model of biological evolution
Authored by HJ Jensen
Date Published: 2004
DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2004.05.022
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Abstract
We consider an individual-based model of evolution. Species emergence as
segregation of the population on to discrete positions in a
hyper-cubical genotype space. The model emphasises interaction between
coexisting genotypes. Although the rate of the micro-dynamics, consisting of reproduction and killing of individuals is essentially
constant, the macro-dynamics is punctuated. The macro-evolution consists
of the creation and annihilation of configurations in genotype space
equivalent to sequences of different ecosystems. We review the
definition of the model and results concerning distribution lifetimes of
individuals, genotypes and configurations. We discuss the
non-stationarity of the model and how this agrees with the fossil
record. Finally, we describe how the model is able to produce species
abundance distributions of a form qualitatively in agreement with
observation on real ecosystems. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights
reserved.
Tags
Fossil record
Extinction statistics