In a paper published in Science in 1982, William Hamilton and Marlene Zuk showed positive associations between the level of chronic blood infections and display characteristics across North American Passerines. Based on these results they proposed a "good genes" model of sexual selection...
Behaviour
Revisiting Brosnan and de Waal 2003
In a paper published in Nature in 2003, Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal provided what was, arguably, the first evidence for inequity avoidance in a non-human animal. Brosnan and de Waal found that brown capuchin monkeys, refused to participate in trials if they observed conspecifics receiving a...
Revisiting Frank 1995
In a paper published in Nature in 1995, Steven Frank proposed a simple model to show how "mutual policing" can suppress competition and ensure "fairness" in reproduction, in the evolution of cooperative groups. Twenty-two tears after the paper was published. I asked Steven Frank about his...
Revisiting Shine 1980
In a paper published in Oecologia in 1980, Richard Shine presented the results of his field and laboratory studies on the "costs" of reproduction in six montane Australian lizards. While there had been many theoretical models of trade-offs between current and future reproduction, Shine's study was...
Revisiting West-Eberhard 1975
In a paper published in The Quarterly Review of Biology in 1975, Mary Jane West-Eberhard reviewed the literature on kin selection and outlined "social, ecological and developmental factors" that might influence the evolution of beneficial social interactions. West-Eberhard was motivated to write...
Revisiting Parker 1970
In a paper published in Biological Reviews in 1970, Geoff Parker reviewed the evidence for sperm competition in nature, discussed why the phenomenon is likely to common in insects and described adaptations in animals to counter sperm competition. Forty-six years after the paper was published I...
Revisiting Huey and Bennett 1987
In a paper published in Evolution in 1987, Raymond Huey and Albert Bennett presented the results of their comparative analysis of temperature preferences and temperature dependence of running speeds in Australian lygosomid skinks. By chasing lizards down racing tracks at different temperatures,...
Revisiting Janzen 1966
In 1966, Daniel Janzen published a paper in Evolution in which he synthesized his empirical work on different pairs of interacting ant and Acacia species in the neotropics, and discussed the possible origins and evolution of these mutualisms. Fifty years after the paper was published, I asked Dan...
Revisiting Weir et al. 2002
In a study published in Science in 2002, Alex Weir, Jackie Chappell and Alex Kacelnik demonstrated that New Caledonian crows can bend wires into the shape of hooks to access food. This study was probably the first report of an animal purposefully modifying an object to use as a tool. Fifteen years...
Revisiting Hill 1991
In 1991, Geoffrey Hill published a paper in Nature describing the results of his field experiments with house finches which showed that: 1. females choose to mate with brightly-coloured males; 2. males with brightly-coloured plumages tended to contribute more to parental care and were also likely...