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A simple model of the relationship between asymmetry and developmental stability
Author(s) -
Houle
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of evolutionary biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.289
H-Index - 128
eISSN - 1420-9101
pISSN - 1010-061X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1420-9101.2000.00195.x
Subject(s) - fluctuating asymmetry , biology , asymmetry , stability (learning theory) , trait , converse , statistics , variance (accounting) , variation (astronomy) , evolutionary biology , mathematics , geometry , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , computer science , programming language , accounting , astrophysics , business
The relationship between developmental stability and morphological asymmetry is derived under the standard view that structures on each side of an individual develop independently and are normally distributed. I use developmental variance of sizes of parts, V D , as the converse of developmental stability, and assume that V D follows a gamma distribution. Repeatability of asymmetry, a measure of how informative asymmetry is about V D , is quite insensitive to the variance in V D , for example only reaching 20% when the coefficient of variation of V D is 100%. The coefficient of variation of asymmetry, CV FA , also increases very slowly with increasing population variation in V D . CV FA values from empirical data are sometimes over 100%, implying that developmental stability is sometimes more variable than any previously studied type of trait. This result suggests that alternatives to this model may be needed.