- Email: [email protected]
Remembrance of things past, encouragement for the future
Book Reviews
Remembrance of things past, encouragement for the future An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology (4th edn) by Nicholas B. Davies, John R. Krebs and Stuart A. West. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. £90.00/s106.30, hbk; £34.99/s41.30, pbk (xiv + 506 pages) ISBN: 978 1 4443 3949 9/978 1 4051 1416 5
Ulrich R. Ernst Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics & Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, bus 2465, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Among the most influential books in the field of behavioral ecology, An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology certainly stands out to the extent that it has been called ‘a classic textbook’. Arguably, many students in biology have been primed for the fields of animal behavior, sociobiology, or ethoecology by this book; in fact, one of them, Stu West, joined the established author-duo John Krebs and Nicholas Davies to produce this 4th edition. It feels a bit like coming home when rereading a textbook, which, although it has a new appearance, still evokes those good old student days. It was back then that it came to me as a revelation that, in behavioral ecology, theory, natural history, and experimentation complement and advance each other in rich ways. Obviously, this was not my own original insight but the teaching philosophy of ‘the Krebs ‘n’ Davies’. The close interplay of theoretical foundations and predictions, experimental falsification, and new hypotheses that is used to explain the observed behaviors and has proved to be so successful for the field, is also one of the reasons for the success of the various editions of this textbook. Stating that much has changed since the first edition appeared, over 30 years ago, is a platitude. Among the novelties that reflect the evolution of the field are (albeit) short discussions of animal personalities, and the link between neuroscience and behavior. There is an emphasis on sexual reproduction, with four chapters discussing mating systems, competition, and conflicts in various situations. Conflicts are also central in the four chapters on social behaviors, especially in the social insects. Color photographs have replaced most of the old black-and-white pictures, although perhaps for the sake of nostalgia, some of the original monochrome images have been retained, such as the escalating fight of red deer stags. However, some more effort in (re)editing the graphics would have been desirable: although most are very illustrative, some photographs and figures are grainy, not sufficiently trimmed to fit, or poorly aligned. In other cases, the added value of the chosen pictures is debatable: when illustrating visual mimicry in Australian cuckoos, why would one choose to show an at-first-sight rather imperfect example
Corresponding author: Ernst, U.R. ([email protected]).
without discussing why this might be adaptive [2]? This is unfortunate, given the persuasive power of pictures; for instance, the simple drawing of a prairie dog burrow that is designed to create a constant airflow ([1], p. 257) is burned in my brain, along with the message that Tinbergen’s four ‘whys’ [3] are not to be used against each other but are in fact complementary. From a didactic point of view, I like the way that current knowledge is presented, as an ever-evolving story where, in fact, one can never be absolutely sure about anything. Take, for example, the discussion of the haplodiploidy hypothesis for the evolution of eusociality. Within only a few pages, the reader is convinced by an intuitively evident argument (higher relatedness with sisters than with own offspring will favor altruism), then disappointed to hear that this was a naı¨ve fallacy (because the lower relatedness with brothers offsets this relatedness advantage). Later on, relieved to hear that a female biased sex ratio reinstalls the hypothesis, the reader will find that this is disputed again a few lines further on where the reproductive value of males is shown to increase to mitigate any advantage. The last hope is split sex ratios, but even this has been challenged lately [4]. It does not seem absurd to predict that one will hear more about this in the years to come, and the authors rightly state that in some cases (such as the one presented) they had to overturn ‘what used to be conventional wisdom’. At the same time, without being patronizing to students, this is a great lesson in the scientific method, the history of science, and a motivation to scrutinize respectfully and critically what they read. Actually, there are individuals who challenge, for instance, the relevance of kin selection. Given that the most fundamental question in behavioral ecology is how a certain behavior increases the (inclusive) fitness of an individual, the gene-centered view is a unifying theme in all 15 chapters. As found throughout this edition, alternative hypotheses are discussed and, hence, group selection is also raised and then dismissed again, based not only on its limited usefulness hitherto, but also on the difficulty to link it with experimental data. Although this may be a courageous attempt at a revolution, the Bastille of kin selection seems too well defended to be taken by a handful revolutionists. Seeing the more traditional case studies being complemented by new and up-to-date, often exciting examples, which are explained in the characteristic plain prose, I can 591
Book Reviews not but agree that ‘these are the very best of times to be a behavioural ecologist’ (p. 440).
Trends in Ecology and Evolution November 2012, Vol. 27, No. 11
3 Tinbergen, N. (1963) On aims and methods of ethology. Z. Tierpsychol. 20, 410–433 4 Gardner, A. et al. (2012) Haplodiploidy and the evolution of eusociality: split sex ratios. Am. Nat. 179, 240–256
References 1 Krebs, J. and Davies, N. (1981) An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, Blackwell Scientific Publications 2 Langmore, N. et al. (2011) Visual mimicry of host nestlings by cuckoos. Proc. R. Soc. B 278, 2455–2463
0169-5347/$ – see front matter http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2012.06.008 Trends in Ecology and Evolution, November 2012, Vol. 27, No. 11
A personal primer for modern biology The Dynamic Genome: A Darwinian Approach by Antonio Fontdevila, Oxford University Press, 2011. US$89.98/£49.95, hbk (212 pp.) ISBN: 978-0-19-954137-9
Yingguang Frank Chan1,2 1 2
Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society, Spemannstr. 39, 72076 Tu¨bingen, Germany Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Str. 2, 24306 Plo¨n, Germany
I read much of Antonio Fontdevila’s The Dynamic Genome in a plane while the engineers performed the aeronautical equivalent of a quadruple bypass on the engines. As I mused about the age of the plane, its piecemeal replacement and its purported sky-worthiness, it felt immensely reassuring that we were still on the ground. The genome has no such luxury as a scheduled maintenance. Implausibly clumsy (to some, ‘irreducibly complex’), the genome has an uncanny resemblance to a roving, formless mess. Yet the genome does not just manage. It adapts, on the fly. This mind-boggling adaptation has long fascinated generations of biologists, and is the central focus of the book. In The Dynamic Genome, Fontdevila does a commendable job in marshaling the facts and conjectures, always using Darwinian evolution as a backdrop [1]. His intended audience is an advanced undergraduate or a researcher wanting to learn more about evolutionary biology. For them, this book would be an informative read and would serve as a decent primer. Fontdevila shows impressive range, from sequence evolution to ecology. His account of evolutionary genomics is short on actual sequences but long on mechanisms, which is just as well: at the risk of appearing to skirt around genome assemblies, the author presents a compelling forum of ideas and long-standing debates on whether the genome is principally evolving adaptively or neutrally; gradually or through large leaps; and whether species boundaries are distinct or porous. The heady back-and-forth may sometimes appear bewildering to a reader unfamiliar with the evidence and personalities, but Fontdevila makes sure to sprinkle the narrative with provocative conjectures to encourage further explorations. To the seasoned evolutionary biologist, Fontdevila’s account feels a little like a parade of the all-too-familiar usual suspects. The Dynamic Corresponding author: Chan, Y.F. ([email protected]).
592
Genome may well be anticipated by a recent spate of books and debates [2–4], or, perhaps in the post-Darwin 2009 double-anniversary era, the book leaves this reader hoping that Fontdevila could go beyond retrospection and chart a path towards integrating developmental biology, population genetics, and genomics. Fontdevila’s enthusiasm for Darwin’s primacy in evolutionary biology is evident throughout The Dynamic Genome. The historical narrative of the book, heavily featuring Darwin’s overarching insight, is endearing. However, it leaves a nagging impression that everything consequential in evolutionary genomics has been said and done, and that gaps have merely been filled in ever since the Modern Synthesis during the 1940s. This extreme impression is of course absurd, and not Fontdevila’s message. However, as research fields go, the perfect marriage between evolution and genomics has only begun to live up to its enormous potential. As evolutionists, we have begun in earnest to overcome the traditional divide between evolution, dominated by big thinkers such as Darwin and Dobzhansky (both were also keen experimentalists) and genomics, a field fueled by technical observations. Far from just filling in gaps, surprising empirical genomic findings regularly challenge assumptions and expand theoretical boundaries. Who would have expected a male duck-billed platypus to carry the sex chromosome complement X1Y1X2Y2X3Y3X4Y4X5Y5? [5], or that ciliates scramble their germline genome every generation to reconstitute their somatic genome [6]? As Darwin explained biodiversity through evolution, a new generation of evolutionary genomicists are now venturing into strange new landscapes to document their fascinating finds. It may well take years before evolutionary biologists can integrate these new discoveries into theoretic framework. If nothing else, the tools are now available with which to bask in this complexity. Our modern view of the genome as a squabbling band of fellow travelers, each advancing its own selfish interest yet bound by a common propagule vessel, is one rife with contradiction and resists a one-size-fits-all description. The genome is new, and it is old. It is a big bag
Remembrance of things past, encouragement for the future An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology (4th edn) by Nicholas B. Davies, John R. Krebs and Stuart A. West. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. £90.00/s106.30, hbk; £34.99/s41.30, pbk (xiv + 506 pages) ISBN: 978 1 4443 3949 9/978 1 4051 1416 5
Ulrich R. Ernst Laboratory of Functional Genomics and Proteomics & Laboratory of Socioecology and Social Evolution, Department of Biology, KU Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, bus 2465, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Among the most influential books in the field of behavioral ecology, An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology certainly stands out to the extent that it has been called ‘a classic textbook’. Arguably, many students in biology have been primed for the fields of animal behavior, sociobiology, or ethoecology by this book; in fact, one of them, Stu West, joined the established author-duo John Krebs and Nicholas Davies to produce this 4th edition. It feels a bit like coming home when rereading a textbook, which, although it has a new appearance, still evokes those good old student days. It was back then that it came to me as a revelation that, in behavioral ecology, theory, natural history, and experimentation complement and advance each other in rich ways. Obviously, this was not my own original insight but the teaching philosophy of ‘the Krebs ‘n’ Davies’. The close interplay of theoretical foundations and predictions, experimental falsification, and new hypotheses that is used to explain the observed behaviors and has proved to be so successful for the field, is also one of the reasons for the success of the various editions of this textbook. Stating that much has changed since the first edition appeared, over 30 years ago, is a platitude. Among the novelties that reflect the evolution of the field are (albeit) short discussions of animal personalities, and the link between neuroscience and behavior. There is an emphasis on sexual reproduction, with four chapters discussing mating systems, competition, and conflicts in various situations. Conflicts are also central in the four chapters on social behaviors, especially in the social insects. Color photographs have replaced most of the old black-and-white pictures, although perhaps for the sake of nostalgia, some of the original monochrome images have been retained, such as the escalating fight of red deer stags. However, some more effort in (re)editing the graphics would have been desirable: although most are very illustrative, some photographs and figures are grainy, not sufficiently trimmed to fit, or poorly aligned. In other cases, the added value of the chosen pictures is debatable: when illustrating visual mimicry in Australian cuckoos, why would one choose to show an at-first-sight rather imperfect example
Corresponding author: Ernst, U.R. ([email protected]).
without discussing why this might be adaptive [2]? This is unfortunate, given the persuasive power of pictures; for instance, the simple drawing of a prairie dog burrow that is designed to create a constant airflow ([1], p. 257) is burned in my brain, along with the message that Tinbergen’s four ‘whys’ [3] are not to be used against each other but are in fact complementary. From a didactic point of view, I like the way that current knowledge is presented, as an ever-evolving story where, in fact, one can never be absolutely sure about anything. Take, for example, the discussion of the haplodiploidy hypothesis for the evolution of eusociality. Within only a few pages, the reader is convinced by an intuitively evident argument (higher relatedness with sisters than with own offspring will favor altruism), then disappointed to hear that this was a naı¨ve fallacy (because the lower relatedness with brothers offsets this relatedness advantage). Later on, relieved to hear that a female biased sex ratio reinstalls the hypothesis, the reader will find that this is disputed again a few lines further on where the reproductive value of males is shown to increase to mitigate any advantage. The last hope is split sex ratios, but even this has been challenged lately [4]. It does not seem absurd to predict that one will hear more about this in the years to come, and the authors rightly state that in some cases (such as the one presented) they had to overturn ‘what used to be conventional wisdom’. At the same time, without being patronizing to students, this is a great lesson in the scientific method, the history of science, and a motivation to scrutinize respectfully and critically what they read. Actually, there are individuals who challenge, for instance, the relevance of kin selection. Given that the most fundamental question in behavioral ecology is how a certain behavior increases the (inclusive) fitness of an individual, the gene-centered view is a unifying theme in all 15 chapters. As found throughout this edition, alternative hypotheses are discussed and, hence, group selection is also raised and then dismissed again, based not only on its limited usefulness hitherto, but also on the difficulty to link it with experimental data. Although this may be a courageous attempt at a revolution, the Bastille of kin selection seems too well defended to be taken by a handful revolutionists. Seeing the more traditional case studies being complemented by new and up-to-date, often exciting examples, which are explained in the characteristic plain prose, I can 591
Book Reviews not but agree that ‘these are the very best of times to be a behavioural ecologist’ (p. 440).
Trends in Ecology and Evolution November 2012, Vol. 27, No. 11
3 Tinbergen, N. (1963) On aims and methods of ethology. Z. Tierpsychol. 20, 410–433 4 Gardner, A. et al. (2012) Haplodiploidy and the evolution of eusociality: split sex ratios. Am. Nat. 179, 240–256
References 1 Krebs, J. and Davies, N. (1981) An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, Blackwell Scientific Publications 2 Langmore, N. et al. (2011) Visual mimicry of host nestlings by cuckoos. Proc. R. Soc. B 278, 2455–2463
0169-5347/$ – see front matter http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2012.06.008 Trends in Ecology and Evolution, November 2012, Vol. 27, No. 11
A personal primer for modern biology The Dynamic Genome: A Darwinian Approach by Antonio Fontdevila, Oxford University Press, 2011. US$89.98/£49.95, hbk (212 pp.) ISBN: 978-0-19-954137-9
Yingguang Frank Chan1,2 1 2
Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society, Spemannstr. 39, 72076 Tu¨bingen, Germany Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, August-Thienemann-Str. 2, 24306 Plo¨n, Germany
I read much of Antonio Fontdevila’s The Dynamic Genome in a plane while the engineers performed the aeronautical equivalent of a quadruple bypass on the engines. As I mused about the age of the plane, its piecemeal replacement and its purported sky-worthiness, it felt immensely reassuring that we were still on the ground. The genome has no such luxury as a scheduled maintenance. Implausibly clumsy (to some, ‘irreducibly complex’), the genome has an uncanny resemblance to a roving, formless mess. Yet the genome does not just manage. It adapts, on the fly. This mind-boggling adaptation has long fascinated generations of biologists, and is the central focus of the book. In The Dynamic Genome, Fontdevila does a commendable job in marshaling the facts and conjectures, always using Darwinian evolution as a backdrop [1]. His intended audience is an advanced undergraduate or a researcher wanting to learn more about evolutionary biology. For them, this book would be an informative read and would serve as a decent primer. Fontdevila shows impressive range, from sequence evolution to ecology. His account of evolutionary genomics is short on actual sequences but long on mechanisms, which is just as well: at the risk of appearing to skirt around genome assemblies, the author presents a compelling forum of ideas and long-standing debates on whether the genome is principally evolving adaptively or neutrally; gradually or through large leaps; and whether species boundaries are distinct or porous. The heady back-and-forth may sometimes appear bewildering to a reader unfamiliar with the evidence and personalities, but Fontdevila makes sure to sprinkle the narrative with provocative conjectures to encourage further explorations. To the seasoned evolutionary biologist, Fontdevila’s account feels a little like a parade of the all-too-familiar usual suspects. The Dynamic Corresponding author: Chan, Y.F. ([email protected]).
592
Genome may well be anticipated by a recent spate of books and debates [2–4], or, perhaps in the post-Darwin 2009 double-anniversary era, the book leaves this reader hoping that Fontdevila could go beyond retrospection and chart a path towards integrating developmental biology, population genetics, and genomics. Fontdevila’s enthusiasm for Darwin’s primacy in evolutionary biology is evident throughout The Dynamic Genome. The historical narrative of the book, heavily featuring Darwin’s overarching insight, is endearing. However, it leaves a nagging impression that everything consequential in evolutionary genomics has been said and done, and that gaps have merely been filled in ever since the Modern Synthesis during the 1940s. This extreme impression is of course absurd, and not Fontdevila’s message. However, as research fields go, the perfect marriage between evolution and genomics has only begun to live up to its enormous potential. As evolutionists, we have begun in earnest to overcome the traditional divide between evolution, dominated by big thinkers such as Darwin and Dobzhansky (both were also keen experimentalists) and genomics, a field fueled by technical observations. Far from just filling in gaps, surprising empirical genomic findings regularly challenge assumptions and expand theoretical boundaries. Who would have expected a male duck-billed platypus to carry the sex chromosome complement X1Y1X2Y2X3Y3X4Y4X5Y5? [5], or that ciliates scramble their germline genome every generation to reconstitute their somatic genome [6]? As Darwin explained biodiversity through evolution, a new generation of evolutionary genomicists are now venturing into strange new landscapes to document their fascinating finds. It may well take years before evolutionary biologists can integrate these new discoveries into theoretic framework. If nothing else, the tools are now available with which to bask in this complexity. Our modern view of the genome as a squabbling band of fellow travelers, each advancing its own selfish interest yet bound by a common propagule vessel, is one rife with contradiction and resists a one-size-fits-all description. The genome is new, and it is old. It is a big bag