This bibliography gathers publications over many years from a variety of researchers exploring topics of agency, directionality, and function (among others) with a special emphasis on CASP members. It began with work from teams within the initial Agency, Directionality and Function project and continues to be populated with papers and articles from diverse researchers looking to further develop and expand ways of working interdisciplinarily on the complex theme of teleology.
Included in the bibliography are entries for publications and books that many scholars involved in the Agency, Directionality and Function project recommended as foundational texts in their field of study. We welcome suggestions for additions to the bibliography from CASP members.
Directionality in Development and Evolution
Rosslenbroich, B. (2023). Properties of Life: Toward a Theory of Organismic Biology. The MIT Press.
Roy, R., Moreno, N., Brockman, S. A., Kostanecki, A., Zambre, A., Holl, C., Solhaug, E. M., Minami, A., Snell-Rood, E. C., Hampton, M., Bee, M. A., Chiari, Y., Hegeman, A. D., & Carter, C. J. (2022). Convergent evolution of a blood-red nectar pigment in vertebrate-pollinated flowers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(5), e2114420119.
Scott-Phillips, T.C., K.N. Laland, D.M. Shuker, T.E. Dickins and S.A. West. (2014). "The niche construction perspective: a critical appraisal." Evolution 68(5):1231–1243.
Sepkoski Jr., J.J., Bambach, R.K., Raup, D.M. and Valentine, J.W. (1981). “Phanerozoic marine diversity and the fossil record.” Nature 291:435–437.
Simpson, G.G. (1944). Tempo and Mode in Evolution. New York: Columbia University Press.
Snell‐Rood, E. C., & Ehlman, S. M. (2023). Developing the genotype‐to‐phenotype relationship in evolutionary theory: A primer of developmental features. Evolution & Development, ede.12434.
Sterelny, K. and Calcott, B. (2011). The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited. Cambridge (MA): The MIT Press.
Sultan, S.E. (2015). Organism and Environment: Ecological Development, Niche Construction, and Adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.
Szathmary, E. (2015). “Toward major transitions theory 2.0.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, United States of America 112:10104–10111.
Travassos-Britto, B., Pardini, R., El-Hani, C. N., & Prado, P. I. (2021). A pragmatic approach for producing theoretical syntheses in ecology. PLoS ONE, 16(12 December).
Vanadzina, K., Street, S. E., Healy, S. D., Laland, K. N., & Sheard, C. (2022). Global drivers of variation in cup nest size in passerine birds. Journal of Animal Ecology, 1365-2656.13815.
Vole, K.L., H.H. Øistein, L.H. Liow, and N.C. Stenseth (2015). “The role of biotic forces in driving macroevolution: beyond the Red Queen.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Part B: Biological Sciences 282:20150186. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.0186.
Watson, Richard A., Levin, Michael., Lewens, Tim. (2025). Evolution by natural induction. Interface Focus 15 (6): 20250025. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2025.0025
Watson, Richard A., Levin, Michael., Lewens, Tim. (2025). Evolution by natural induction II: further interactions with natural selection. Interface Focus 15 (6): 20250036. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2025.0036
Zenil-Ferguson, R., McEntee, J. P., Burleigh, J. G., & Duckworth, R. A. (2023). Linking Ecological Specialization to Its Macroevolutionary Consequences: An Example with Passerine Nest Type. Systematic Biology, 72(2), 294–306.
Ecology and Earth System Science
Aguadé-Gorgorió, G., Arnoldi, J.-F., Barbier, M., & Kéfi, S. (2023). A taxonomy of multiple stable states in complex ecological communities [Preprint]. Ecology.
Al-Ashhab, A., Marmen, S., Schweitzer-Natan, O., Bolotin, E., Patil, H., Viner-Mozzini, D., Aharonovich, D., Hershberg, R., Minz, D., Carmeli, S., Cytryn, E., Sukenik, A., & Sher, D. (2022). Freshwater microbial metagenomes sampled across different water body characteristics, space and time in Israel. Scientific Data, 9(1), 652.
Arellano-Nava, B., Halloran, P. R., Boulton, C. A., Scourse, J., Butler, P. G., Reynolds, D. J., & Lenton, T. M. (2022). Destabilisation of the Subpolar North Atlantic prior to the Little Ice Age. Nature Communications, 13(1), 5008.
Armstrong McKay, D. I., Staal, A., Abrams, J. F., Winkelmann, R., Sakschewski, B., Loriani, S., Fetzer, I., Cornell, S. E., Rockström, J., & Lenton, T. M. (2022). Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points. Science, 377(6611), eabn7950.
Barbier, M. (2023). Ecological perturbation. In B. M. Haddad & B. D. Solomon (Eds.), Dictionary of Ecological Economics (pp. 153–153). Edward Elgar Publishing.
Bourrat, P. (2023). A Pricean Formalization of Gaia. Philosophy of Science, 1–34.
Bourrat, P., Godsoe, W., Pillai, P., Gouhier, T. C., Ulrich, W., Gotelli, N. J., & Van Veelen, M. (2023). What is the price of using the Price equation in ecology? Oikos, e10024.
Bowyer, F. T., Krause, A. J., Song, Y., Huang, K.-J., Fu, Y., Shen, B., Li, J., Zhu, X.-K., Kipp, M. A., van Maldegem, L. M., Brocks, J. J., Shields, G. A., & Poulton, S. W. (2023). Biological diversification linked to environmental stabilization following the Sturtian Snowball glaciation. Science Advances, 9, eadf9999.
Bowyer, F. T., Krause, A. J., Song, Y., Huang, K.-J., Fu, Y., Shen, B., Li, J., Zhu, X.-K., Kipp, M. A., van Maldegem, L. M., Brocks, J. J., Shields, G. A., & Poulton, S. W. (2023). Biological diversification linked to environmental stabilization following the Sturtian Snowball glaciation. Science Advances, 9, eadf9999.
Carrasco-Espinosa, K., Avitia, M., Barrón-Sandoval, A., Abbruzzini, T. F., Salazar Cabrera, U. I., Arroyo-Lambaer, D., Uscanga, A., Campo, J., Benítez, M., Wegier, A., Rosell, J. A., Reverchon, F., Hernández, G., Boege, K., & Escalante, A. E. (2022). Land-Use Change and Management Intensification Is Associated with Shifts in Composition of Soil Microbial Communities and Their Functional Diversity in Coffee Agroecosystems. Microorganisms, 10(9), 1763.