Revisiting Brown 1988

In a paper published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology in 1988, Joel Brown developed a method to use a forager's giving up density on a resource patch to understand energetic, predation and missed opportunity costs of foraging and then demonstrated its utility, through field experiments, on an Arizonian desert rodent community. Twenty-nine years after the paper … Continue reading Revisiting Brown 1988 →

Revisiting Taborsky 1984

In a paper published in Animal Behaviour in 1984, Michael Taborsky presented a cost-benefit analysis of helping behaviour in the cichlid fish Lamprologus brichardi. In this species, individuals of earlier broods stay on in their parents' territories and contribute to the care of the current brood. Evidence from field observations and lab experiments, suggested that … Continue reading Revisiting Taborsky 1984 →

Revisiting Meyer et al. 1990

In a paper published in Nature in 1990, Axel Meyer, Thomas Kocher, Pereti Basasibwaki, and Allan Wilson, using mitochondrial DNA sequences, provided evidence in support of a monophyletic origin of the cichlid diversity in Lake Victoria. Whats more, they found that the genetic variation among these cichlids was less than within the human species suggesting … Continue reading Revisiting Meyer et al. 1990 →

Revisiting Cavender-Bares et al. 2004

In a paper published in The American Naturalist in 2004, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, David Ackerly, David Baum and Fakhri Bazzaz provided an explanation for the maintenance of oak diversity in local communities in North Central Florida. Cavender-Bares and colleagues found that co-occurring oaks are more distantly related that expected by chance, a pattern resulting from convergence … Continue reading Revisiting Cavender-Bares et al. 2004 →

Revisiting Vermeij 1977

In a paper published in Paleobiology in 1977, Geerat Vermeij examined the Mesozoic reorganisation of shallow water marine communities using gastropod skeletal geometry and other kinds of data. Based on the evidence, Vermeij argued that predation and grazing had grown stronger and become more damaging to skeletons, driving gastropod shell evolution. Forty years after the … Continue reading Revisiting Vermeij 1977 →

Revisiting Rainey & Travisano 1998

In a paper published in Nature in 1998, Paul Rainey and Michael Travisano showed that identical populations of the bacterium Pseudomonas fluroescens diversify morphologically when provided with ecological opportunity, but show no divergence when opportunity is restricted. Further, the morphs follow a predictable sequence of evolution maintained by competition. These results provided support for the … Continue reading Revisiting Rainey & Travisano 1998 →

Revisiting Nosil et al. 2002

In a paper published in Nature in 2002, Patrik Nosil, Bernard Crespi and Cristina Sandoval showed, using a combination of morphological measurements and mate choice experiments, that parallel evolution of sexual isolation in the walking-stick insect, Timema cristinae, was promoted by divergent selection for host adaptation, suggesting that such adaptation could play an important role … Continue reading Revisiting Nosil et al. 2002 →

Revisiting Peterson et al. 1999

In a paper published in Science in 1999, A. Townsend Peterson, Jorge Soberón and Víctor Sánchez-Cordero presented strong evidence for niche conservatism in 37 sister taxon pairs of mammals, birds and butterflies on either side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico. These results suggested that speciation initally took place along geographic dimensions and ecological … Continue reading Revisiting Peterson et al. 1999 →

Revisiting Gavrilets 2000

In the late 1990s, mounting experimental evidence for rapid evolution of traits related to fertilisation seemed paradoxical given that matching of male and female traits is required for successful reproduction In a paper published in Nature in 2000, Sergey Gavrilets showed, through a simple mode, that continual change is expected in such traits whenever females … Continue reading Revisiting Gavrilets 2000 →

Revisiting Davies & Brooke 1988

In a paper published in Animal Behaviour in 1988, Nick Davies and Michael Brooke unraveled, using a mix of natural history observation and clever experiments, the nature of the interaction between the brood-parasitic common cuckoo and its host the reed warbler. Their experiments showed that many facets of the cuckoo's behaviour are likely to have … Continue reading Revisiting Davies & Brooke 1988 →