Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25884468›Full record

ArticleBMC systems biology2015

Evolutionary tradeoffs, Pareto optimality and the morphology of ammonite shells.

Avichai Tendler, Avraham Mayo, Uri Alon

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMC systems biology, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
45citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

45 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. The exact mathematical form of the Pareto principle.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2026
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  20. Learning Extremal Representations with Deep Archetypal Analysis.International journal of computer vision · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Avichai TendlerDepartment of Molecular cell biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel. tendlea@gmail.com.
Avraham MayoDepartment of Molecular cell biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel. mayoavi@gmail.com.
Uri AlonDepartment of Molecular cell biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, 76100, Israel. urialonw@gmail.com.

Funding

European Research Council 249919
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundOrganisms that need to perform multiple tasks face a fundamental tradeoff: no design can be optimal at all tasks at once. Recent theory based on Pareto optimality showed that such tradeoffs lead to a highly defined range of phenotypes, which lie in low-dimensional polyhedra in the space of traits. The vertices of these polyhedra are called archetypes- the phenotypes that are optimal at a single task. To rigorously test this theory requires measurements of thousands of species over hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Ammonoid fossil shells provide an excellent model system for this purpose. Ammonoids have a well-defined geometry that can be parameterized using three dimensionless features of their logarithmic-spiral-shaped shells. Their evolutionary history includes repeated mass extinctions.

resultsWe find that ammonoids fill out a pyramid in morphospace, suggesting five specific tasks - one for each vertex of the pyramid. After mass extinctions, surviving species evolve to refill essentially the same pyramid, suggesting that the tasks are unchanging. We infer putative tasks for each archetype, related to economy of shell material, rapid shell growth, hydrodynamics and compactness.

conclusionsThese results support Pareto optimality theory as an approach to study evolutionary tradeoffs, and demonstrate how this approach can be used to infer the putative tasks that may shape the natural selection of phenotypes.

Indexed as

Computational BiologyEvolution, MolecularAnimalsAnimal ShellsCephalopodaExtinction, BiologicalHydrodynamicsSelection, Genetic

Identifiers

PMID25884468
PMCPMC4404009

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.