Nature 214, 349 - 352 (22 April 1967); doi:10.1038/214349a0

Evolutionary History and Population Biology

L. C. BIRCH & P. R. EHRLICH

School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Department of Biological Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California

While accepting evolutionary theory, should ecologists be more sceptical about hypotheses derived solely from untestable assumptions about the past ? The authors put forward the view that many ecologists underestimate the efficacy of natural selection and fail to distinguish between phylogenetic and ecological questions.

References

1.	Sokal, R. R., and Sneath, P. H. A., Principles of Numerical Taxonomy (W. H. Freeman and Co., San Francisco and London, 1963).
2.	Ehrlich, P. R., Syst. Zool., 13, 109 (1964). | ISI |
3.	Orians, G. H., Amer. Nat., 96, 257 (1962). | ISI |
4.	Lack, D., J. Animal Ecol., 34, 223 (1965). | ISI |
5.	Andrewartha, H. G., and Birch, L. C., The Distribution and Abundance of Animals (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1954).
6.	Lack, D., Gibb, J., and Owen, D. F., Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 128, 313 (1957).
7.	Perrins, C. M., J. Animal Ecol., 34, 601 (1965). | ISI |
8.	Lack, D., Ardea, 46, 71 (1958).
9.	Lack, D., and Southern, H. N., Ibis, 91, 607 (1949). | ISI |
10.	Orians, G. H., and Collier, G., Evolution, 17, 449 (1963). | ISI |
11.	Lack, D., Ibis, 86, 260 (1944).
12.	Birch, L. C., Amer. Nat., 91, 5 (1957). | ISI |
13.	Ehrlich, P. R., and Holm, R. W., Science, 137, 652 (1962). | ISI |
14.	Cole, L. C., Quart. Rev. Biol., 29, 103 (1954). | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
15.	Lewontin, R. C., in Genetics of Colonizing Species (edit. by Baker, H. G., and Stebbins, G. L.) (Academic Press, New York, 1965).
16.	Lack, D., The Natural Regulation of Animal Numbers (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1954).
17.	Hamilton, W. J., and Orians, G. H., Condor, 67, 361 (1965).
18.	Ehrlich, P. R., and Raven, P. H., Evolution, 18, 586 (1965). | ISI |
19.	Popper, K. R., Fed. Proc., 22, 661 (1963).