Modeling and simulating morphological evolution in an artificial life environment

This paper presents a computer-based environment designed to study biological evolution considering morphological aspects. It was inspired on cellular automata and evolutionary algorithm principles. Simple rules are used to determine the genotype and phenotype of individuals and their relationships with behavioral aspects in a square matrix environment, where individuals can evolve. Two methods to simulate mutational errors and to introduce variability of mutations are discussed. A series of four simulations show that the model promotes phenotype evolution depending on the distribution of food over the environment; morphology evolved as to favor movement of the individuals towards the portion of the environment in which the food has been distributed or to capture falling food.