LinMap: visualising complexity gradients in evolutionary landscapes

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Description/Abstract

This paper describes an interactive visualisation tool, LinMap, for exploring the structure of complexity gradients in evolutionary landscapes. LinMap is a computationally efficient and intuitive tool for visualising and exploring multidimensional parameter spaces. An artificial cell lineage model is presented that allows complexity to be quantified according to several different developmental and phenotypic metrics. LinMap is applied to the evolutionary landscapes generated by this model to demonstrate that different definitions of complexity produce different gradients across the same landscape; that landscapes are characterised by a phase transition between proliferating and quiescent cell lineages where both complexity and diversity are maximised; and that landscapes defined by adaptive fitness and complexity can display different topographical features.