In 1997, Ole Seehausen, Jacques van Alphen and Frans Witte published a paper in Science providing evidence for a novel route through which eutrophication can reduce species diversity. Species of cichlid fish in Lake Victoria are capable of interbreeding, but mate choice based on coloration and...
Evolution
Revisiting Hrdy 1974
In a paper published in Folia Primatologica in 1974, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy reported the findings of her field study on Hanuman Langurs in India that suggested that infant-killing by male langurs was a reproductive strategy. Forty-two years after the paper was published, I asked Sarah Hrdy about the...
Revisiting Grant and Grant 2006
In a 2006 paper in Science, Peter and Rosemary Grant provided evidence that demonstrated a character displacement event in a Galapagos finch species. This was, probably, the first such documentation of character displacement in the wild. Ten years after the paper was published, I spoke to Peter...
Revisiting Andersson 1982
In a paper published in Nature in 1982, Malte Andersson showed, experimentally, that female long-tailed widowbirds choose mates based on the lengths of their tails. Andersson’s study was, arguably, the first experimental support for Darwin’s Sexual Selection theory. Thirty-four years after the...
Revisiting Petrie et al. 1991
In a paper published in Animal Behaviour in 1991, Marion Petrie, Tim Halliday and Carolyn Sanders showed, through an observational study, that: 1. mating success of male peacock was related to the number of spots on their tails; 2. the relation between mating success and number of tail spots was a...
Revisiting Reznick et al. 1990
In a 1990 paper in Nature, David Reznick, Heather Bryga and John Endler, showed, through an 11-year experiment on a natural population of guppies in Trinidad, that predators can cause significant life-history evolution. Twenty-six years after the paper was published, I spoke to David Reznick about...
Revisiting Berthold et al. 1992
In a paper in Nature in 1992, Peter Berthold, Andreas Helbig, Gabriele Mohr and Ulrich Querner provided experimental evidence to show that central European blackcaps (Sylvia atricapilla) had evolved a new winter migration route, and established a new winter home over 1000 km away from their old...
Revisiting Endler 1980
In a paper published in Evolution in 1980, John Endler provided experimental evidence to show that guppy color patterns represented a “shifting balance” between the effects of sexual and natural selection. Thirty-six years after the paper was published, I spoke to John Endler about his motivation...
Revisiting Price et al. 1988
In 1988, Trevor Price, Mark Kirkpatrick and Stevan Arnold published a paper in Science developing a model to explain why breeding date in birds, though heritable and under selection, does not evolve. Twenty-eight years after the paper was published, I spoke to Trevor Price about the making of this...
Revisiting Ryan et al. 1990
In 1990, Michael Ryan, James Fox, Walter Wilczynski and Stanley Rand published a paper in Nature showing that, during courtship, male Tungara frogs exploit a pre-existing neural bias in females towards lower-pitched calls. This experiment provided evidence in support of a third hypothesis for the...