Speciational view of macroevolution: are micro and macroevolution decoupled?

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.Comment: Europhys. Lett. 75:342--34

Inverse relationship between genetic diversity and epigenetic complexity

Early studies of molecular evolution revealed a correlation between genetic distance and time of species divergence. This observation provoked the molecular clock hypothesis and in turn the ‘Neutral Theory’, which however remains an incomplete explanation since it predicts a constant mutation rate per generation whereas empirical evidence suggests a constant rate per year. Data inconsistent with the molecular clock hypothesis have steadily accumulated in recent years that show no correlation between genetic distance and time of divergence. It has therefore become a challenge to find a testable idea that can reconcile the seemingly conflicting data sets. Here, an inverse relationship between genetic diversity and epigenetic complexity was deduced from a simple intuition in building complex systems. Genetic diversity, i.e., genetic distance or dissimilarity in DNA or protein sequences between individuals or species, is restricted by the complexity of epigenetic programs. This inverse relationship logically deduces the maximum genetic diversity hypothesis, which suggests that macroevolution from simple to complex organisms involves a punctuational increase in epigenetic complexity that in turn causes a punctuational loss in genetic diversity. The hypothesis explains a diverse set of biological phenomena, including both for and against the correlation between genetic distance and time of divergence.
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Making the most of clade selection

Clade selection is unpopular with philosophers who otherwise accept multilevel selection theory. Clades cannot reproduce, and reproduction is widely thought necessary for evolution by natural selection, especially of complex adaptations. Using microbial evolutionary processes as heuristics, I argue contrariwise, that (1) clade growth (proliferation of contained species) substitutes for clade reproduction in the evolution of complex adaptation, (2) clade-level properties favoring persistence – species richness, dispersal, divergence, and possibly intraclade cooperation – are not collapsible into species-level traits, (3) such properties can be maintained by selection on clades, and (4) clade selection extends the explanatory power of the theory of evolution

Hierarchy Theory of Evolution and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: Some Epistemic Bridges, Some Conceptual Rifts

Contemporary evolutionary biology comprises a plural landscape of multiple co-existent conceptual frameworks and strenuous voices that disagree on the nature and scope of evolutionary theory. Since the mid-eighties, some of these conceptual frameworks have denounced the ontologies of the Modern Synthesis and of the updated Standard Theory of Evolution as unfinished or even flawed. In this paper, we analyze and compare two of those conceptual frameworks, namely Niles Eldredge’s Hierarchy Theory of Evolution (with its extended ontology of evolutionary entities) and the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (with its proposal of an extended ontology of evolutionary processes), in an attempt to map some epistemic bridges (e.g. compatible views of causation; niche construction) and some conceptual rifts (e.g. extra-genetic inheritance; different perspectives on macroevolution; contrasting standpoints held in the “externalism–internalism” debate) that exist between them. This paper seeks to encourage theoretical, philosophical and historiographical discussions about pluralism or the possible unification of contemporary evolutionary biology

Declining Volatility, a General Property of Disparate Systems: From Fossils, to Stocks, to the Stars

There may be structural principles pertaining to the general behavior of systems that lead to similarities in a variety of different contexts. Classic examples include the descriptive power of fractals, the importance of surface area to volume constraints, the universality of entropy in systems, and mathematical rules of growth and form. Documenting such overarching principles may represent a rejoinder to the Neodarwinian synthesis that emphasizes adaptation and competition. Instead, these principles could indicate the importance of constraint and structure on form and evolution. Here we document a potential example of a phenomenon suggesting congruent behavior of very different systems. We focus on the notion that universally there has been a tendency for more volatile entities to disappear from systems such that the net volatility in these systems tends to decline. We specifically focus on origination and extinction rates in the marine animal fossil record, the performance of stocks in the stock market, and the characters of stars and stellar systems. We consider the evidence that each is experiencing declining volatility, and also consider the broader significance of this.Comment: Accepted for publication in Palaeontology. 13 pages, 3 figure

Fluctuations in models of biological macroevolution

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.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure