2001/03/01 by Éric Goles, O. Schulz, Mario Markus · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Plant and animal studies
paper · doi:10.1002/cplx.1040
openalex publication_date 2001/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract The fact that some species of cicadas appear every 7, 13, or 17 years and that these periods are prime numbers has been regarded as a coincidence. We found a simple evolutionary predator‐prey model that yields prime‐periodic preys having cycles predominantly around the observed values. An evolutionary game on a spatial array leads to travelling waves reminiscent of those observed in excitable systems. The model marks an encounter of two seemingly unrelated disciplines: biology and number theory. A restriction to the latter, provides an evolutionary generator of arbitrarily large prime numbers. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.