Classification of Long-Term Evolutionary Dynamics

Mark A. Bedau, Emile Snyder and Norman H. Packard

Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: We present empirical evidence that long-term evolutionary dynamics fall into three distinct classes, depending on whether adaptive evolutionary activity is absent (class 1), bounded (class 2), or unbounded (class 3). These classes are defined using three statistics: diversity, new evolutionary activity (Bedau & Packard, 1992), and mean cumulative evolutionary activity (Bedau et al., 1997). The three classes partition all the long-term evolutionary dynamics observed in Holland's Echo model (Holland, 1992), in a random-selection adaptively neutral "shadow" of Echo, and in the biosphere as reflected in the Phanerozoic fossil record. This classification provides quantitative evidence that Echo lacks the unbounded growth in adaptive evolutionary activity observed in the fossil record.

Keywords: Evolution; adaptation; neutral evolution; Echo; fossils (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:safiwp:98-03-025

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().