• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.167-177
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• 2020

Cooperative behavior may seem contrary to the notion of natural selection and adaptation, but is widely observed in nature, from the genetic level to the organism. The origin and persistence of cooperative behavior has long been a mystery to scientists studying evolution and ecology. One of the important research topics in the field of evolutionary ecology and behavioral ecology is to find out why cooperation is maintained over time. In this paper we take a historical overview of mathematical models representing cooperative relationships from the perspective of mathematical biology, which studies population dynamics between interacting biological groups, and analyze the mathematical characteristics and meanings of these cooperative models.