Entropic sampling and natural selection in biological evolution

With a view to connecting random mutation on the molecular level to punctuated equilibrium behaviour on the phenotype level, we pn,pose a new model for biological evolution. which incorporates random mutation and natural selection. In this scheme the system evolves continuously into new configurations, yielding non-stationary behaviour of the total fitness. Furthermore, both the waiting time distribution of species and the avalanche size distribution display power-law behaviours with exponents close to two, which are consistent with the fossil data. These features are rather robust, indicating the key role of entropy.