Evolution to alternative levels of stable diversity leaves areas of niche space unexplored
Fig 6
Large mutations allow escape from low diversity meta-stable states.
The final evolutionary diversity when seeding the simulation with different numbers of initial species for differently sized mutations and asymmetric competition. For solid points, mutants were placed a small fixed distance away from the parents. For hollow triangles, mutations are drawn from a Gaussian with mean equal to the parent’s phenotype and standard deviation indicated by point color. Mutation size or standard deviation (depending on the mutation algorithm) are represented by color. All other parameters are the same as those listed in Table A in S1 Parameters.