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,...
Evolution
Revisiting Kempenaers et al. 1992
In a study published in Nature in 1992, Bart Kempenaers, Geert R. Verheyen, Marleen Van den Broeck, Terry Burke, Christine Van Broeckhoven and André Dhondt showed that female blue tits choose higher-quality males for extra-pair copulations (EPC), providing evidence in support of the genetic...
Revisiting Ehrlich and Raven 1964
In 1964, Paul Ehrlich and Peter Raven published a paper in Evolution that reported the findings of their literature survey of larval food plants of butterflies. Based on the patterns they found, they hypothesized that caterpillar-host plant relationships result from "coevolution", and that the...
Revisiting Lively 1986
In a paper published in Evolution in 1986, Curt Lively presented the results of his field experiments to understand shell dimorphism in acorn barnacles. Lively showed that the morphology of the atypical form is a developmental response that is induced by predation by a carnivorous gastropod....
Revisiting Bronstein 2001
In a conceptual paper in the American Zoologist in 2001, Judith Bronstein highlighted the need to understand the costs of mutualisms along with its benefits, and laid out a research agenda for future empirical work in this area. Sixteen years after the paper was published I asked Judith Bronstein...
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 Avise et al. 1987
In a paper published in the Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics in 1987, John Avise, Jonathan Arnold, Martin Ball, Eldredge Bermingham, Trip Lamb, Joseph Neigel, Carol. A. Reeb and Nancy C. Saunders highlighted the value of mitochondrial DNA in bringing phylogenetic thinking into population...
Revisiting Wilson 1975
In a paper published in PNAS in 1975, David Sloan Wilson showed that group selection can evolve in a population if it is made up of clusters of individuals that regularly interact (e.g. predation, mating, competition), and the clusters are connected through dispersal. The strength of group...
Revisiting Strassmann et al. 2000
In a paper published in Nature in 2000, Joan Strassmann, Yong Zhu and David Queller showed, using a mixing experiment and analysing microsatellite markers, that different clones of Dictyostelium discoideum from a field population readily form multi-clonal slugs and that approximately half of...
Revisiting Simberloff and Wilson 1969
In a paper published in Ecology in 1969, Daniel Simberloff and E.O. Wilson reported the findings of a "defaunation experiment" they conducted on mangrove islands in the Florida Keys, to test the Theory of Island Biogeography proposed by Robert MacArthur and E.O. Wilson. In addition to this paper,...