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Evolutionary suicide

Evolutionary suicide is an evolutionary mechanism where adaptation at the level of the individual results in a situation where the entire population goes extinct. This process is different from group selection, and arises where individual fitness is coupled with the fitness of the population.

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Models of evolutionary suicide have generally come from scientists using the mathematical modeling technique known as adaptive dynamics, where models of evolution can be combined with models of population dynamics. This allows the scientist to predict how population density will change as a given trait invades the population.

Evolutionary suicide has also been referred to as "Darwinian extinction", "Runaway selection to self-extinction" or "Evolutionary collapse". The idea is similar in concept to the Tragedy of the Commons.

As such, evolutionary suicide remains a theoretical possibility. Very few studies have actually demonstrated it, either in the laboratory or in nature, but this is due to the difficulties associated with observing the exact causes of an extinction [1].

References and external links

Gyllenberg M. & K. Parvinen. 2001. Necessary and sufficient conditions for evolutionary suicide. Bull. Math. Biol. 63, 981-993

Gyllenberg M., K. Parvinen & U. Dieckmann. 2002. Evolutionary suicide and evolution of dispersal in structured metapopulations. J. Math. Biol. 45, 79-105 (IIASA Interim Report IR-00-056)