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Pruitt & Goodnight reply

Nature volume 524, pages E4–E5 (2015)Cite this article

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replying to L. Grinsted, T. Bilde & J. D. J. Gilbert Nature 524, 10.1038/nature14595 (2015); A. Gardner Nature 524, 10.1038/nature14596 (2015)

In Pruitt and Goodnight1 we provided experimental evidence that group selection has contributed to a group-level adaptation in the social spider Anelosimus studiosus. Grinsted et al.2 provide a wide diversity of system-specific critiques of our original study. In contrast, Gardner3 highlights differences between our definition of ‘group level adaptations’ and his own. He further describes a model that recreates some of the dynamics seen in Anelosimus studiosus. Below, we address the critiques of Grinsted et al.2 first and Gardner3 second.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 15216, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jonathan N. Pruitt & Charles J. Goodnight

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  1. Jonathan N. Pruitt
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  2. Charles J. Goodnight
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Contributions

L.G., J.D.J.G. and T.B. authored this paper; L.G. performed statistical analyses.

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Correspondence to Jonathan N. Pruitt.

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Pruitt, J., Goodnight, C. Pruitt & Goodnight reply. Nature 524, E4–E5 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14597

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