93 research outputs found
Percolation on fitness landscapes: effects of correlation, phenotype, and incompatibilities
We study how correlations in the random fitness assignment may affect the
structure of fitness landscapes. We consider three classes of fitness models.
The first is a continuous phenotype space in which individuals are
characterized by a large number of continuously varying traits such as size,
weight, color, or concentrations of gene products which directly affect
fitness. The second is a simple model that explicitly describes
genotype-to-phenotype and phenotype-to-fitness maps allowing for neutrality at
both phenotype and fitness levels and resulting in a fitness landscape with
tunable correlation length. The third is a class of models in which particular
combinations of alleles or values of phenotypic characters are "incompatible"
in the sense that the resulting genotypes or phenotypes have reduced (or zero)
fitness. This class of models can be viewed as a generalization of the
canonical Bateson-Dobzhansky-Muller model of speciation. We also demonstrate
that the discrete NK model shares some signature properties of models with high
correlations. Throughout the paper, our focus is on the percolation threshold,
on the number, size and structure of connected clusters, and on the number of
viable genotypes.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl
Dynamics of alliance formation and the egalitarian revolution
Arguably the most influential force in human history is the formation of
social coalitions and alliances (i.e., long-lasting coalitions) and their
impact on individual power. In most great ape species, coalitions occur at
individual and group levels and among both kin and non-kin. Nonetheless, ape
societies remain essentially hierarchical, and coalitions rarely weaken social
inequality. In contrast, human hunter-gatherers show a remarkable tendency to
egalitarianism, and human coalitions and alliances occur not only among
individuals and groups, but also among groups of groups. Here, we develop a
stochastic model describing the emergence of networks of allies resulting from
within-group competition for status or mates between individuals utilizing
dyadic information. The model shows that alliances often emerge in a phase
transition-like fashion if the group size, awareness, aggressiveness, and
persuasiveness of individuals are large and the decay rate of individual
affinities is small. With cultural inheritance of social networks, a single
leveling alliance including all group members can emerge in several
generations. Our results suggest that a rapid transition from a hierarchical
society of great apes to an egalitarian society of hunter-gatherers (often
referred to as "egalitarian revolution") could indeed follow an increase in
human cognitive abilities. The establishment of stable group-wide egalitarian
alliances creates conditions promoting the origin of cultural norms favoring
the group interests over those of individuals.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figure
speciation. 2. Palms on an oceanic island
A recent study of a pair of sympatric species of palms on the Lord Howe Island is viewed as providing probably one of the most convincing examples of sympatric speciation to date. Here we describe and study a stochastic, individual-based, explicit genetic model tailored for this palms system. Overall, our results show that relatively rapid (< 50 000 generations) colonization of a new ecological niche, and sympatric or parapatric speciation via local adaptation and divergence in flowering periods are theoretically plausible if (i) the number of loci controlling the ecological and flowering period traits is small; (ii) the strength of selection for local adaptation is intermediate; and (iii) an acceleration of flowering by a direct environmental effect associated with the new ecological niche is present. We discuss patterns and time-scales of ecological speciation identified by our model, and we highlight important parameters and features that need to be studied empirically in order to provide information that can be used to improve the biological realism and power of mathematical models of ecological speciation
Dynamics of clade diversification on the morphological hypercube
Understanding the relationship between taxonomic and morphological changes is
important in identifying the reasons for accelerated morphological
diversification early in the history of animal phyla. Here, a simple general
model describing the joint dynamics of taxonomic diversity and morphological
disparity is presented and applied to the data on the diversification of
blastozoans. I show that the observed patterns of deceleration in clade
diversification can be explicable in terms of the geometric structure of the
morphospace and the effects of extinction and speciation on morphological
disparity without invoking major declines in the size of morphological
transitions or taxonomic turnover rates. The model allows testing of hypotheses
about patterns of diversification and estimation of rates of morphological
evolution. In the case of blastozoans, I find no evidence that major changes in
evolutionary rates and mechanisms are responsible for the deceleration of
morphological diversification seen during the period of this clade's expansion.
At the same time, there is evidence for a moderate decline in overall rates of
morphological diversification concordant with a major change (from positive to
negative values) in the clade's growth rate.Comment: 8 pages, Latex, 2 postscript figures, submitted to Proc.R.Soc.Lond.
Modelling social norms: an integration of the norm-utility approach with beliefs dynamics
We review theoretical approaches for modelling the origin, persistence and change of social norms. The most comprehensive models describe the coevolution of behaviours, personal, descriptive and injunctive norms while considering influences of various authorities and accounting for cognitive processes and between-individual differences. Models show that social norms can improve individual and group well-being. Under some conditions though, deleterious norms can persist in the population through conformity, preference falsification and pluralistic ignorance. Polarization in behaviour and beliefs can be maintained, even when societal advantages of particular behaviours or belief systems over alternatives are clear. Attempts to change social norms can backfire through cognitive processes including cognitive dissonance and psychological reactance. Under some conditions social norms can change rapidly via tipping point dynamics. Norms can be highly susceptible to manipulation, and network structure influences their propagation. Future models should incorporate network structure more thoroughly, explicitly study online norms, consider cultural variations and be applied to real-world processes
diseases with ecological speciation
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Convergence to consensus in heterogeneous groups and the emergence of informal leadership
When group cohesion is essential, groups must have efficient strategies in place for consensus decisionmaking. Recent theoretical work suggests that shared decision-making is often the most efficient way for dealing with both information uncertainty and individual variation in preferences. However, some animal and most human groups make collective decisions through particular individuals, leaders, that have a disproportionate influence on group decision-making. To address this discrepancy between theory and data, we study a simple, but general, model that explicitly focuses on the dynamics of consensus building in groups composed by individuals who are heterogeneous in preferences, certain personality traits (agreeability and persuasiveness), reputation, and social networks. We show that within-group heterogeneity can significantly delay democratic consensus building as well as give rise to the emergence of informal leaders, i.e. individuals with a disproportionately large impact on group decisions. Our results thus imply strong benefits of leadership particularly when groups experience time pressure and significant conflict of interest between members (due to various between-individual differences). Overall, our models shed light on why leadership and decision-making hierarchies are widespread, especially in human groups
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