Avoiding artificial deaths in a Penna model population

Abstract

In the Penna model, deaths by old age are known to artificially truncate age demographics. We propose to avoid these deaths by obtaining a parameter space plot (Penna parameters R and T, here constrained to a birth rate B=8) for which these deaths do not occur. For both T<R and T>R, the genetic diversity and number of species decreased more slowly in populations with old age deaths than those without. This confirms a difference in the genetic evolution of these populations.