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A simple mathematical homogeneous model of competition is used to describe Neanderthal extinction in Europe. It considers two interacting species, Neanderthals and Early Modern Men, in the same ecological niche. Using paleontological data…
Primates exhibit a robust deviation from canonical allometric scaling: at fixed body mass, their lifespans exceed those of non-primate mammals by factors of two to three. A rhesus macaque (8 kg) lives 25-40 years, whereas a cat of similar…
In this paper, we present a model for the long-term evolution of the merger of two unequal mass C/O white dwarfs (WDs). After the dynamical phase of the merger, magnetic stresses rapidly redistribute angular momentum, leading to nearly…
In ecology, species can mitigate their extinction risks in uncertain environments by diversifying individual phenotypes. This observation is quantified by the theory of bet-hedging, which provides a reason for the degree of phenotypic…
How typical elements that shape organisms, such as protein secondary structures, have evolved, or how evolutionarily susceptible/resistant they are to environmental changes, are significant issues in evolutionary biology, structural…
Theoretical ecology has traditionally equated persistence with the stability of a fixed equilibrium point. Here we argue that the primary threat to ecosystem persistence need not be the loss of stability, but instead the escape of the…
An ongoing debate in evolutionary biology is whether phenotypic change occurs predominantly around the time of speciation or whether it instead accumulates gradually over time. In this work I propose a general framework incorporating both…
In general, cellular phenotypes, as measured by concentrations of cellular components, involve large degrees of freedom. However, recent measurement has demonstrated that phenotypic changes resulting from adaptation and evolution in…
Current-day genomes bear the mark of the evolutionary processes. One of the strongest indications is the sequence homology among families of proteins that perform similar biological functions in different species. The number of proteins in…
Possibility to establish macroscopic phenomenological theory for biological systems, akin to the akin to the well-established framework of thermodynamics, is briefly reviewed. We introduce the concept of an evolutionary fluctuation-response…
Well protected human and laboratory animal populations with abundant resources are evolutionary unprecedented, and their survival far beyond reproductive age may be a byproduct rather than tool of evolution. Physical approach, which takes…
We prove results on existence and uniqueness of solutions of a system of equations modeling the evolution of a generalized bioconvective flow. The mathematical model considered in the present work describes the convective motion generated…
The dramatic size evolution of early-type galaxies from z ~ 2 to 0 poses a new challenge in the theory of galaxy formation, which may not be explained by the standard picture. It is shown here that the size evolution can be explained if the…
Humans, like all organisms, are subject to fundamental biophysical laws. Van Valen predicted that, because of zero-sum dynamics, all populations of all species in a given environment flux the same amount of energy on average. Damuth's…
For over hundreds of millions of years, sea turtles and their ancestors have swum in the vast expanses of the ocean. They have undergone a number of evolutionary changes, leading to speciation and sub-speciation. However, in the past few…
Several white dwarfs with atmospheric metal pollution have been found to host small planetary bodies (planetesimals) orbiting near the tidal disruption radius. We study the physical properties and dynamical origin of these bodies under the…
We study the emergence of cell differentiation under the assumption of the existence of a given number of tradeoffs between genes encoding different functions. In the model the viability of colonies is determined by the capability of their…
One essential ingredient of evolutionary theory is the concept of fitness as a measure for a species' success in its living conditions. Here, we quantify the effect of environmental fluctuations onto fitness by analytical calculations on a…
Density-dependent population growth is a feature of large carnivores like wolves ($\textit{Canis lupus}$), with mechanisms typically attributed to resource (e.g. prey) limitation. Such mechanisms are local phenomena and rely on individuals…
An important question in biology is how the relative size of different organs is kept nearly constant during growth of an animal. This property, called proportionate growth, has received increased attention in recent years. We discuss our…