Fluctuations in models of biological macroevolution
Populations and Evolution
2007-05-23 v1 Statistical Mechanics
Abstract
Fluctuations in diversity and extinction sizes are discussed and compared for two different, individual-based models of biological coevolution. Both models display power-law distributions for various quantities of evolutionary interest, such as the lifetimes of individual species, the quiet periods between evolutionary upheavals larger than a given cutoff, and the sizes of extinction events. Time series of the diversity and measures of the size of extinctions give rise to flicker noise. Surprisingly, the power-law behaviors of the probability densities of quiet periods in the two models differ, while the distributions of the lifetimes of individual species are the same.
Cite
@article{arxiv.q-bio/0502046,
title = {Fluctuations in models of biological macroevolution},
author = {Per Arne Rikvold},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:q-bio/0502046},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
7 pages, 5 figures