It's really interesting to watch my sim develop. One species will dominate for thousands to millions of cycles. Then, in a relatively brief 1000 cycles will totally be replaced by another species. And then later on will be replaced by the species it replaced itself.
I'm guessing that since my sim runs much faster than most others (roughly 40 cycles/sec) maybe it has to do with how fast mutations start piling up. Evolutionary dead ends are quickly exterminated by an incoming species.
Whatever the case, as soon as two competing species exist in my sim, energy levels plummet. I mean really plummet. The sim is so small, and alga so scarce, high pop levels really require a Pax. As soon as any sort of war starts, things go to Hell.
Really very interesting. Wish I could figure out more about the dynamics going on.