From survivors to replicators: evolution by natural selection revisited
Authored by Pierrick Bourrat
Date Published: 2014
DOI: 10.1007/s10539-013-9383-1
Sponsors:
Australian Research Council (ARC)
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Abstract
For evolution by natural selection to occur it is classically admitted
that the three ingredients of variation, difference in fitness and
heredity are necessary and sufficient. In this paper, I show using
simple individual-based models, that evolution by natural selection can
occur in populations of entities in which neither heredity nor
reproduction are present. Furthermore, I demonstrate by complexifying
these models that both reproduction and heredity are predictable
Darwinian products (i.e. complex adaptations) of populations initially
lacking these two properties but in which new variation is introduced
via mutations. Later on, I show that replicators are not necessary for
evolution by natural selection, but rather the ultimate product of such
processes of adaptation. Finally, I assess the value of these models in
three relevant domains for Darwinian evolution.
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