DOI: 10.11648/j.ejb.20261402.12 ISSN: 2329-1737

An Information-Theoretic Evolutionary Analysis of Minimally Monophyletic Groups

Richard Zander
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Structural monophyly is a method of modeling macroevolution in terms of minimally monophyletic groups. It renders taxonomy amenable to the mathematical modeling of biophysics by standardizing the genus as one ancestral species and about four immediate descendant species, each genus monothetic in sharing the isomorphy of the ancestral species newest traits, and by unitizing taxonomic variables an analogue of mass, velocity and time. The biophysics of macroevolution is presented as a new field. In the present paper, taxonomy is demonstrated as foundational in providing organized data for analysis of the processes underlying the origin, persistence and resilience of lineages of living organisms. The processes governed and operating in minimally monophyletic groups are summarized and evaluated mathematically at the taxon level, involving features such as the Pareto ratio and a fractal dimension of 1.161. Individuation is equated with both taxonomic identification and evolutionary survival against environmental resistance. As powering a statistically well supported path through geologic time and environmental space, individuation is found to be directional. As embodied in taxa, using one informational bit per newly fixed trait, it can be analyzed with Shannon-Turing sequential Bayes using odds tables and standard deviations on 1-tailed distributions. One species with 4 new traits is correctly identifiable 42 times out of 43, which may be extended to species survival on environmental testing. That a genus is correctly identifiable about 1.7 million times for each failure implies a functional reason for lineage survival for 100 million years. Origination and extinction are modeled for a minimally monophyletic group with initial burst of speciation and gradual extinction based on observed taxonomic analyses. Kullbuck-Leibler divergence analysis generalizes the individuation analysis. Species are shallow entropy wells while genera are deep ones. Hamming sphere-packing showed that error correction and avoidance are robust in the studied groups of bryophytes through ancestral trait redundancy. An endless belt model allows older characters to change state upon exposure to environmental changes, preserving the old state as survival potential within the genetic constraints of a taxonomic description. This study suggests that there are shared, perhaps universal, complex and potentially mathematically modeled processes underlying biological diversity at the supraspecific level as lineages change through time. If universal, then ecosystems are complexly mutualistic in survival.

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