Not Just a Theory--The Utility of Mathematical Models in Evolutionary Biology e1002017

• Published in: PLoS biology Vol. 12; no. 12
• Main Authors: Servedio, Maria R, Brandvain, Yaniv, Dhole, Sumit, Fitzpatrick, Courtney L, Goldberg, Emma E, Stern, Caitlin A, Cleve, Jeremy Van, Yeh, D Justin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 01.12.2014
• Subjects: Evolution; Evolutionary biology; Studies; Theory

An important purpose of mathematical models in evolutionary research, as in many other fields, is to act as "proof-of-concept" tests of the logic in verbal explanations, paralleling the way in which empirical data are used to test hypotheses. Because not all subfields of biology use mathem...