The value of complementary approaches in evolutionary research: reply to Magalhães and Matos.
Résumé
In their Letter to TREE[1], Magalhães and Matos criticize our review of experimental evolution [2] for not discussing the limitations of other research approaches used in evolutionary biology. Although we agree that the strengths of experimental evolution result in part from the ability to circumvent some of those limitations, we felt that discussing the limitations of comparative, phylogenetic, paleontological, and other approaches was beyond the scope of our paper. The power of experimental evolution is manifest in the breadth and depth of insights gained through its application, as we reviewed [2]. Nonetheless, experimental evolution does have its own particular limitations as a research approach, and it is important that practitioners of experimental evolution are aware of them to avoid incorrect interpretation of results.