an agent-based model of the effects of a primate social structure on the speed of natural selection
The rate of speciation is in most mammals an order of magnitude faster than in most other vertebrates. It is faster still in the social mammals. The apparent association between complex modes of sociality and high rates of evolutionary change might provide an answer to the question of why these rates differ so markedly. Using an individual based model of a population with a social structure mimicking the one common to cercopithecine primates and a simple model ecology, we investigate the effects of social structures on the rates at which natural selection operates. The results of the model indicate that the specific social structure modelled does affect the rate at which natural selection operates within the modeled population.
evolution