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Science 19 August 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5738, pp. 1193 - 1195
DOI: 10.1126/science.1117591
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Perspectives

EVOLUTION:
Is Invariance Across Animal Species Just an Illusion?

Gerdien de Jong

Life history invariants (dimensionless ratios between two life history variables) have been proposed as a major similarity over organisms. In a Perspective, de Jong discusses how the method to detect life history invariants is statistically flawed, as reported in the same issue by Nee et al. Therefore, life histories might require different explanations for different species, rather than being ordered to similar principles.

The author is in the Evolutionary Population Biology Group, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, NL-3584 CH Utrecht, Netherlands. E-mail: g.dejong{at}bio.uu.nl

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Comment on "The Illusion of Invariant Quantities in Life Histories".
V. M. Savage, E. P. White, M. E. Moses, S. K. M. Ernest, B. J. Enquist, and E. L. Charnov (2006)
Science 312, 198b
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