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Summary
Intuition can be a powerful force in science, but more often proves to be an unreliable guide to reality. This point is beautifully brought home in the report by McGee et al. (1) on page 1077 of this issue. The study concerns evolutionary innovations that enable members of an evolving lineage to exploit resources in ways inaccessible to their ancestors. Most biologists view such innovations as opening the evolutionary door to species proliferation and the longer persistence of lineages with the novel traits. This expectation is often realized. But, as McGee et al. show in their study of cichlid fishes in East Africa's Lake Victoria, this is not always the case.
