Power of the power-laws: lessons from unification of small and large time scales for evolution

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified model combining micro and macro evolution in ecosystems as a dynamic network, revealing deviations from power-law behavior in long-lived species, challenging previous assumptions.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel unified framework that integrates ecological and geological time scales within a single network model of evolution.

Findings

Strong deviations from power law in long lifetime regimes

Unified model captures both micro and macro evolution dynamics

Challenges previous claims of power-law distributions in evolution

Abstract

We develop a ``unified'' model that describes both ``micro'' and ``macro'' evolutions within a single theoretical framework. The eco-system is described as a dynamic network; the population dynamics at each node of this network describes the ``micro''-evolution over ecological time scales (i.e., birth, ageing and natural death of individual organisms) while the appearance of new nodes, the slow changes of the links and the disappearance of existing nodes accounts for the ``macro'' evolution over geological time scales (i.e., the origination, evolution and extinction of species). In contrast to several earlier claims in the literature, we observe strong deviations from power law in the regime of long life times where the statistics is, usually, poor.