Speciational view of macroevolution: are micro and macroevolution decoupled?

Abstract

We introduce a simple computational model that, with a microscopic dynamics driven by natural selection and mutation alone, allows the description of true speciation events. A statistical analysis of the so generated evolutionary tree captures realistic features showing power laws for frequency distributions in time and size. Albeit these successful predictions, the difficulty in obtaining punctuated dynamics with mass extinctions suggests the necessity of decoupling micro and macro-evolutionary mechanisms in agreement with some ideas of Gould's and Eldredge's theory of punctuated equilibrium.

Europhys. Lett. 75:342--348

References in corpus (8)

• Biological Evolution and Statistical Physics
• Punctuated equilibria and 1/f noise in a biological coevolution model with individual-based dynamics
• Power of the power-laws: lessons from unification of small and large time scales for evolution
• Effects of correlated interactions in a biological coevolution model with individual-based dynamics
• Periodicity of mass extinctions without an extraterrestrial cause
• Computer simulations of history of life: speciation, emergence of complex species from simpler organisms, and extinctions
• Simple Bit-String Model for Lineage Branching
• Sole-Manrubia model of biological evolution: some new insights

Cited by in corpus (4)

• An individual based model with global competition interaction: fluctuations effects in pattern formation
• Pattern formation in a predator-prey system characterized by a spatial scale of interaction
• Analysis of a spatial Lotka-Volterra model with a finite range predator-prey interaction
• The mathematical law of evolutionary information dynamics and an observer's evolution regularities