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Evolutionary ecology

Different routes to similar ends

Nature volume 392, pages 552–553 (1998)Cite this article

In science, it can be all too easy to provide the public with different take-home messages from the same body of theory and data. Nowhere is that more apparent than from evolution, where different authors have championed different perspectives.

Richard Dawkins, for example, frequently emphasizes evolution by natural selection as a unifying theory for biology: his is a largely deterministic world following from the differential survival and reproductive success of genes within which there is no recombination1. By contrast, Stephen Gould concentrates on the evidence for biodiversity resulting from contingency — historical accidents determine disparate courses of evolution2. In his metaphor, if the tape of life was repeated, we should always expect a different outcome.

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Figure 1: Examples of the ecomorphs of Anolis lizards studied by Losos et al.3.

JONATHAN LOSOS/KEVIN DE QUEROZ

References

  1. Dawkins, R. Climbing Mount Improbable (Viking, London, 1996).

  2. Gould, S. J. Wonderful Life (Norton, New York, 1989).

  3. Losos, J. B., Jackman, T. R., Larson, A., de Queiroz, K. & Rodríguez-Schettino, L. Science 279, 2115–2118 (1998).

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  6. Losos, J. B. in New Uses for New Phylogenies (eds Harvey, P. H., Leigh Brown, A. J., Maynard Smith, J. & Nee, S.) 308-321 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996).

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  9. Harvey, P. H. & Pagel, M. D. The Comparative Method in Evolutionary Biology (Oxford Univ. Press, 1991).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK

    Paul H. Harvey

  2. the Department of Biology, Galton Laboratory, University College London, Wolfson House, 4 Stephenson Way, London, NW1 2HE, UK

    Linda Partridge

Authors
  1. Paul H. Harvey
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  2. Linda Partridge
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Harvey, P., Partridge, L. Different routes to similar ends. Nature 392, 552–553 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/33290

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