Top 10 Most Influential Papers on Evolution

Have you ever wondered what are ~the~ must-read papers in the field of evolutionary biology? In this video, we do a top 10 countdown of what I think are the most influential and important papers in the field!

Obviously, these are ~my~ picks, and if you have different ones, please share them in the comments!

Honorable mentions:

Gould, S. J., & Eldredge, N. (1977). Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology, 3(2), 115-151.
Sagan, L. (1967). On the origin of mitosing cells. Journal of theoretical biology, 14(3), 225-IN6.
Felsenstein, J. (1985). Phylogenies and the comparative method. The American Naturalist, 125(1), 1-15.
Haldane, J. B. S. 1924. A mathematical theory of natural and artificial selection. Part I. Trans. Cambridge Phil. Soc. 23:19-41
Wright, S. (1943). Isolation by distance. Genetics, 28(2), 114
West-Eberhard, M. J. (2005). Developmental plasticity and the origin of species differences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(suppl_1), 6543-6549
Woese, C. R., & Fox, G. E. (1977). Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 74(11), 5088-5090.
Kubatko, L. S., & Degnan, J. H. (2007). Inconsistency of phylogenetic estimates from concatenated data under coalescence. Systematic biology, 56(1), 17-24.

[hassankk-dvix]

Unfortunately, there are not many views.
This channel should be one of the most prominent scientific channels on YouTube

[joaolucasdasilva]

Amazing list, Zach! I have to read most of them.

But as a paleo, I think Eldredge and Gould should have ranked higher. Btw, the paper you mentioned as honorable is not the original Punk Eeek paper (not to mention Eldredge, 1971), which is Eldredge & Gould (1972) [Eldredge is the first author]. If google scholar is not crazy, it has been cited over 7000 times. On Reserach Gate it has over 3000 citations. The 1977 paper you mentioned is a follow up paper by Gould & Eldredge, mostly clarifications and reply to peers.

Best regars,

João

We now need the top 10 books in Evolution video!!!

[louierombaut]

An excellent selection! I was surprised that Watson and Crick’s paper on DNA didn’t make it because it laid the groundwork for molecular genetics, the Rosetta Stone for all the things we can learn from the genomes of organisms.

[DataDrid]

I'm a bit surprised you didn't mention the great grandfather of all of them:

Darwin, C. R. & Wallace, A. R. 1858. On the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, 3(9): 45-62. [with an introduction by Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker].

[lodepublishing]

Thanks! Love seeing papers cited in youtube videos :)

[akshan]

What would be good introductory book for evolution? All of these are far beyond my pay grade. Is Selfish Gene a good place to start or is it outdated?

[criticalthinker]

Thanks, Zach. Great video!
Please do top 10 books. Another possibility might be top 10 recent papers (last 20 years?)

[abdullahrajpoot]

Yesss Please we want another top 10 books on Evolution Video :)
Zach ! You are hero :)

[Spielkalb-von-Sparta]

Thank you very much for this compilation, much appreciated! 😺

And yes, a similar top-ten list for books on evolution would be great – especially such which are understandable by laymen to recommend.

[abdullahrajpoot]

Ohh! I assumed it were rebuttal to that of Noble's interview on Variable Minds, about which you told me on email, Zach :) Thanks for your comprehensive reply, on my last email to you.And, hey I commented on your Junk DNA video last night that won't it be a good idea if you start making a lecture series on Evolution with a population genetic perespective for undergrad and grad level students, as you know there aren't good resources on pop gen on Youtube and other platforms. Is not it a good idea, mate ? :)

[ianchenofficial]

I think why I enjoy Dr Zach’s videos is that he’s so passionate about the subject. Either that or he’s part Italian with all the hand waving!! 😉

[microtubules]

Excellent! I would have added Stoltzfus' "On the possibility of constructive neutral evolution" but it's only been cited 500 ish times. There should be an honourable mention to King and Jukes' "Non-Darwinian Evolution" as an accompaniment to Kimura's paper.

[harryeast]

The only concept I guessed might be on the list was in the honourable mentions (i.e. punctuated equilibria). I had heard about some of these other things, though (from memory: greater hybridisability between more closely related taxa, adaptationism in the guise of "just so stories are bad", the dove/hawk game... which I did not think was named after literal doves and hawks... kin selection, heritability and the molecular clock; though I suspect I would've defined the last three wrongly if asked to) but just in a fairly generic sense.

I feel like an obvious follow up would be "the most influential papers of the last five, ten, fifteen and twenty years" where each time you do five papers or whatever is practicable (1+2+3+4? i.e. one for the last five, two for the last ten, three for the last fifteen and four for the last twenty, so ten altogether).

EDIT: I should note, I'm pretty sure I'd define PE incorrectly too, if you asked me to define that. I have heard of it though.

[mehrshadgafarzadeh]

hi, dr zach ... I really like to know whats your oponian about memtics (cultural evolution) would you consider it as an extension to modern synthesis? Can we equivalent memes to genes?

[thylacoleonkennedy]

4:34 I hope Michael Behe's taking notes (he's not)

[vesuvandoppelganger]

Did any of the authors eventually figure out that evolution is impossible?

[istvansipos]

23:42
cannot altruism make you (your genes) more successful, even if you and the person you help are NOT related? I help a fragile old dude, the tribe (not even directly me) loses some food every day, and the old man teaches my kids how to make really, good spears.
Sure, my tribe is most likely to already have a spear making old man of our own, but spear making is just 1 trick. A saved old dude can do a ton of things to give my kids a better chance. By simply just being there, he will be 1 additional slow person when the local bear visits us.