Titles

More papers published this week about evolution:

• The Evolution of an Enigmatic Human Trait: False Beliefs due to Pseudo-Solution Traps.
• Spatial Structure and Interspecific Cooperation: Theory and an Empirical Test Using the Mycorrhizal Mutualism
• THE ECO-EVOLUTIONARY RESPONSES OF A GENERALIST CONSUMER TO RESOURCE COMPETITION
• Meta-analysis suggests choosy females get sexy sons more than ‘good genes’
• Evidence for elevated mutation rates in low-quality genotypes
• Ontogenetic niche shifts in dinosaurs influenced size, diversity and extinction in terrestrial vertebrates
• Speciation with gene flow in a heterogeneous virtual world: can physical obstacles accelerate speciation?
• Synthetic Genetic Polymers Capable of Heredity and Evolution
• ROLES FOR MODULARITY AND CONSTRAINT IN THE EVOLUTION OF CRANIAL DIVERSITY AMONG ANOLIS LIZARDS
• ENVIRONMENTAL ROBUSTNESS AND THE ADAPTABILITY OF POPULATIONS

How wonderful life would be if there were more hours in a day. I'd use them for sleeping.

 

Titles

As a new feature mostly intended for my own benefit, I will start posting titles of new papers that I come across in the ToCs that I get emailed every week. I practically never have time to read the papers I find, and so they disappear into oblivion, which is sad. Perhaps just listing the titles here will result in me going back to them at some point. Also, even though I only post the title, it's easy to find them again by a simple Google scholar search.

• Cooperation and the evolution of intelligence
• EXPLORING VARIATION IN FITNESS SURFACES OVER TIME OR SPACE
• Goldilocks Meets Santa Rosalia: An Ephemeral Speciation Model Explains Patterns of Diversification Across Time Scales
• Generalized Movement Strategies for Constrained Consumers: Ignoring Fitness Can Be Adaptive
• Reproduction-longevity trade-offs reflect diet, not adaptation
  
  

Correlation does too imply causation

What's this nonsense I hear that correlation doesn't imply causation? Of course it does. If there is correlation between two variables, there must be causation somewhere. Granted, the correlation alone doesn't show which of the three types of causation it is (A causes B, B causes A, or C causes A and B*), but causation has to be there, if the correlation isn't spurious. It would be correct to say that correlation doesn't indicate the kind of causation.



In this case, causation is likely that those who've gone to the moon are alive, and those who are alive have eaten, and those who have eaten have likely eaten chicken - particularly likely if you're among those who have been in training to to go the moon.

More.

* All three cases could have intermediate variables, of course.

Carnival of Evolution #46

Carnival of Evolution #46 has been posted. This time, in addition to the posts, we get to learn about different trees used in evolutionary biology and computer science. E.g., the cladogram:



See the rest at Synthetic Daisies.