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 …

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 …

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 …

Revisiting Kessler & Baldwin 2001

In a study published in Science in 2001, Andre Kessler and Ian Baldwin quantified and characterised the volatiles emitted by Nicotiana attenuata when attacked by herbivores and mimicked their release to see if they reduced herbivory by attracting egg predators inhibiting herbivore oviposition. Their results suggested that release of volatiles could reduce presence of herbivores …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …