Response to Comment on "The Illusion of Invariant Quantities in Life Histories"

doi:10.1126/science.1121675

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Response to Comment on "The Illusion of Invariant Quantities in Life Histories"

Sean Nee,¹^* Nick Colegrave,¹ Stuart A. West,¹ Alan Grafen²

Savage et al. describe two different kinds of invariant. Thekind they claim to have the greatest biological importance allowsthe invariant quantities to vary widely, even randomly, betweendifferent species. We do not agree that such quantities revealany deep constraints on evolution.

¹ Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, UK.
² Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, UK.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sean.nee{at}ed.ac.uk

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TECHNICAL COMMENTS Comment on "The Illusion of Invariant Quantities in Life Histories": Van M. Savage, Ethan P. White, Melanie E. Moses, S. K. Morgan Ernest, Brian J. Enquist, and Eric L. Charnov (14 April 2006)
Science 312 (5771), 198b. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1123679]
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REPORTS The Illusion of Invariant Quantities in Life Histories: Sean Nee, Nick Colegrave, Stuart A. West, and Alan Grafen (19 August 2005)
Science 309 (5738), 1236. [DOI: 10.1126/science.1114488]
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