In evolutionary theory, an evolutionary landscape (or fitness landscape) refers to a multidimensional parameter space that organisms (or arguably, individual cells or even whole clades) occupy. The ordinate (or 'y') axis is usually taken to be the fitness of the entity in question; the landscape may be described as 'flat' if most changes in the immediate mutational neighbourhood are of negligible effect on fitness. This (rare) situation is interpreted to mean that the organism in question is not under any form of selection. On the other hand, an organism that is well or poorly adapted can be thought of as inhabiting a local peak or trough respectively.
Evolutionary landscapes provide a useful cognitive tool for visualising the consequences of evolution on entities of a system, commonly in the form of fitness landscapes; however actual visualisation of real organisms' fitness landscapes is fraught with difficulties, not least due to the problems inherent in visualising many dimensions at once.
Famous quotes containing the words evolutionary and/or landscape:
“The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.”
—Stanley Weiser, U.S. screenwriter, and Oliver Stone. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas)
“The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.”
—Thomas Gray (1716–1771)