Assessing the Fitness Landscape Revolution

Abstract

According to Pigliucci and Kaplan, there is a revolution underway in how we understand fitness landscapes. Recent models suggest that a perennial problem in these landscapes-how to get from one peak across a fitness valley to another peak-is, in fact, non-existent. In this paper I assess the structure and the extent of Pigliucci and Kaplan's proposed revolution and argue for two points. First, I provide an alternative interpretation of what underwrites this revolution, motivated by some recent work on model-based science. Second, I show that the implications of this revolution need to carefully assessed depending on question being asked, for peak-shifting is not central to all evolutionary questions that fitness landscapes have been used to explore.