Computer simulations of history of life: speciation, emergence of complex species from simpler organisms, and extinctions

Abstract

We propose a generic model of eco-systems, with a hierarchical food web structure. In our computer simulations, we let the eco-system evolve continuously for so long that we can monitor extinctions as well as speciations over geological time scales. Speciation leads not only to horizontal diversification of species at any given trophic level but also to vertical bio-diversity that accounts for the emergence of complex species from simpler forms of life. We find that five or six trophic levels appear as the eco-system evolves for sufficiently long time, starting initially from just one single level. Moreover, the time intervals between the successive collections of ecological data is so short that we could also study "micro"-evolution of the eco-system, i.e., the birth, ageing and death of individual organisms.