| 1 | Phylogenies and the Comparative Method | American Naturalist | 1985 | 9,239 |
| 2 | Genetic Distance between Populations | American Naturalist | 1972 | 8,591 |
| 3 | Evidence for the Existence of Three Primary Strategies in Plants and Its Relevance to Ecological and Evolutionary Theory | American Naturalist | 1977 | 4,862 |
| 4 | Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity | American Naturalist | 1966 | 4,725 |
| 5 | Sources, Sinks, and Population Regulation | American Naturalist | 1988 | 4,585 |
| 6 | Herbivores and the Number of Tree Species in Tropical Forests | American Naturalist | 1970 | 4,151 |
| 7 | The Limiting Similarity, Convergence, and Divergence of Coexisting Species | American Naturalist | 1967 | 4,004 |
| 8 | On Optimal Use of a Patchy Environment | American Naturalist | 1966 | 3,837 |
| 9 | Mechanisms of Succession in Natural Communities and Their Role in Community Stability and Organization | American Naturalist | 1977 | 3,739 |
| 10 | Homage to Santa Rosalia or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals? | American Naturalist | 1959 | 3,651 |
| 11 | On r- and K-Selection | American Naturalist | 1970 | 3,429 |
| 12 | Natural Selection, the Costs of Reproduction, and a Refinement of Lack's Principle | American Naturalist | 1966 | 3,048 |
| 13 | Community Structure, Population Control, and Competition | American Naturalist | 1960 | 3,016 |
| 14 | A General Hypothesis of Species Diversity | American Naturalist | 1979 | 2,909 |
| 15 | On the Relationship between Abundance and Distribution of Species | American Naturalist | 1984 | 2,872 |
| 16 | The Paradox of the Plankton | American Naturalist | 1961 | 2,853 |
| 17 | The Optimal Balance between Size and Number of Offspring | American Naturalist | 1974 | 2,663 |
| 18 | Parasites, Bright Males, and the Immunocompetence Handicap | American Naturalist | 1992 | 2,630 |
| 19 | Phylogenetic Analysis and Comparative Data: A Test and Review of Evidence | American Naturalist | 2002 | 2,499 |
| 20 | The Ecology of Individuals: Incidence and Implications of Individual Specialization | American Naturalist | 2003 | 2,404 |
| 21 | The "Challenge Hypothesis": Theoretical Implications for Patterns of Testosterone Secretion, Mating Systems, and Breeding Strategies | American Naturalist | 1990 | 2,176 |
| 22 | Acquisition and Allocation of Resources: Their Influence on Variation in Life History Tactics | American Naturalist | 1986 | 2,142 |
| 23 | Marine Benthic Diversity: A Comparative Study | American Naturalist | 1968 | 2,139 |
| 24 | Field Experiments on Interspecific Competition | American Naturalist | 1983 | 2,126 |
| 25 | The Statistics and Biology of the Species-Area Relationship | American Naturalist | 1979 | 2,059 |
| 26 | Risks of Population Extinction from Demographic and Environmental Stochasticity and Random Catastrophes | American Naturalist | 1993 | 1,914 |
| 27 | Coefficients of Inbreeding and Relationship | American Naturalist | 1922 | 1,893 |
| 28 | Why Mountain Passes are Higher in the Tropics | American Naturalist | 1967 | 1,837 |
| 29 | Food Web Complexity and Community Dynamics | American Naturalist | 1996 | 1,811 |
| 30 | On the Generality of the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient | American Naturalist | 2004 | 1,805 |
| 31 | The Evolution of Altruistic Behavior | American Naturalist | 1963 | 1,794 |
| 32 | The Strength of Phenotypic Selection in Natural Populations | American Naturalist | 2001 | 1,787 |
| 33 | On the Prevalence and Relative Importance of Interspecific Competition: Evidence from Field Experiments | American Naturalist | 1983 | 1,741 |
| 34 | Graphical Representation and Stability Conditions of Predator-Prey Interactions | American Naturalist | 1963 | 1,737 |
| 35 | Signals, Signal Conditions, and the Direction of Evolution | American Naturalist | 1992 | 1,726 |
| 36 | The Latitudinal Gradient in Geographical Range: How so Many Species Coexist in the Tropics | American Naturalist | 1989 | 1,722 |
| 37 | Latitudinal Gradients in Species Diversity: A Review of Concepts | American Naturalist | 1966 | 1,645 |
| 38 | Phylogenies and the Comparative Method: A General Approach to Incorporating Phylogenetic Information into the Analysis of Interspecific Data | American Naturalist | 1997 | 1,643 |
| 39 | Long-Term Experimental Evolution in Escherichia coli. I. Adaptation and Divergence During 2,000 Generations | American Naturalist | 1991 | 1,585 |
| 40 | Exploitation Ecosystems in Gradients of Primary Productivity | American Naturalist | 1981 | 1,579 |
| 41 | Life Historical Consequences of Natural Selection | American Naturalist | 1970 | 1,569 |
| 42 | Energy and Large-Scale Patterns of Animal- and Plant-Species Richness | American Naturalist | 1991 | 1,564 |
| 43 | Exploring the Phylogenetic Structure of Ecological Communities: An Example for Rain Forest Trees | American Naturalist | 2000 | 1,483 |
| 44 | Ecological Sources of Selection on Avian Sounds | American Naturalist | 1975 | 1,478 |
| 45 | A Note on Trophic Complexity and Community Stability | American Naturalist | 1969 | 1,474 |
| 46 | On the Evolution of Mating Systems in Birds and Mammals | American Naturalist | 1969 | 1,446 |
| 47 | Estimating Phylogenetic Trees from Distance Matrices | American Naturalist | 1972 | 1,439 |
| 48 | Measurement of "Overlap" in Comparative Ecological Studies | American Naturalist | 1966 | 1,425 |
| 49 | Community Regulation: Variation in Disturbance, Competition, and Predation in Relation to Environmental Stress and Recruitment | American Naturalist | 1987 | 1,398 |
| 50 | Phylogenetic Comparative Analysis: A Modeling Approach for Adaptive Evolution | American Naturalist | 2004 | 1,366 |