Revisiting Felsenstein 1985

In a paper published in The American Naturalist in 1985, Joseph Felsenstein proposed a new method – phylogenetically independent contrasts – that allowed the incorporation of phylogenetic information into comparative analyses. Using Felsenstein’s method, biologists could overcome the statistical problem of non-independence of species due to shared ancestry. Thirty-one years after the paper was published, …

Revisiting Gurevitch et al. 1992

In a paper published in The American Naturalist in 1992, Jessica Gurevitch, Laura Morrow, Alison Wallace and Joseph Walsh presented the results of what was, arguably, the first meta-analysis in ecology, of field competition experiments published in six leading ecology journals over a 10-year period. Gurevitch and colleagues found that, overall, competition had a strong …

Revisiting Hurlbert 1984

In a paper published in Ecological Monographs in 1984, Stuart Hurlbert examined 176 experimental studies in ecology and found that 27% suffered from 'pseudoreplication' - the use of statistical statistical testing in situations in which treatments were not replicated or the replicates were not independent. When only studies that used inferential statistics were considered, the …

Revisiting Jiggins et al. 2001

In a paper published in Nature in 2001, Chris Jiggins, Russell Naisbit, Rebecca Coe and James Mallet showed that divergence in mimicry of colour pattern was responsible for the origin of two Heliconia butterfly species. Using experiments, Jiggins and colleagues showed that differences in mimicry pattenrs led to assortative mating of the sister species and …

Revisiting Carvalho & Vasconcelos 1999

In a paper published in Biological Conservation in 1999, Karine Carvalho and Heraldo Vasconcelos examined the effects of forest fragmentation on litter-dwelling ants in Central Amazonia. Their results suggested that litter ant communities were structured both by edge and isolation effects in these fragments. Twenty-one years after the paper was published, I asked Karine Carvalho …

Revisiting Ohta 1973

In a paper published in 1973 in Nature, Tomoko Ohta extended Motoo Kimura's neutral theory of molecular evolution to include slightly deleterious mutations, and examine the role of interaction of drift and weak selection in molecular evolution. Tomoko Ohta called this extension the "nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution". Forty seven years after the paper …

Revisiting Coulson et al. 2001

In a paper published in Science in 2001, Tim Coulson, Edward Catchpole, Steve Albon, Byron Morgan, Josephine Pemberton, Tim Clutton-Brock, Mick Crawley, and Bryan Grenfell examined the effect of density, climate and demography on population fluctuations in Soay sheep on the St. Kilda islands in the United Kingdom. Coulson and colleagues' found that age and …

Revisiting Losos et al. 1998

In a paper published in Science in 1998, Jonathan Losos, Todd Jackman, Allan Larson, Kevin de Queiroz, and Lourdes Rodrı́guez-Schettino, using morphometric and phylogenetic analyses, showed that the same set of habitat specialists or "ecomorphs" of Anolis lizards had evolved independently on four Greater Antillean islands, suggesting that adaptive radiation in similar environments can produce …

Revisiting Benkman 1999

In a paper published in The American Naturalist in 1999, Craig Benkman demonstrated the existence of a selection mosaic with coevolutionary hotspots in a population of the Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine. Where red squirrels are present, they drive selection on lodgepole pine cone structure. In locations where they are absent, red crossbills are more abundant …

Revisiting Thompson & Cunningham 2002

In a paper published in Nature in 2002, John Thompson and Bradley Cunningham showed, through careful study of a widespread plant-moth interaction across multiple habitats and years, that the same moth species functions as a pollinator in some places and as a parasite in other. Thompson & Cunningham's results provided support for the idea that …