I must not be reading this right because I do not see the big rub.
There was a population in a niche as a free-living critter that spawned a sub-population that evolved into a niche as a parasitic critter. There was a population in a niche as a parasitic critter that spawned a sub-population that evolved into a niche as a free-living critter.
The authors of the original study seem to feel that this free-to-parasite-to-free link is a violation of Dollo’s Law while what I can find on Dollo’s Law indicates that it pertains to an exact reversibility. I guess it depends on how one interprets Dollo’s Law. I very much doubt that some in-general kind of niche with the same proteomic chemistry is involved in the two free ends of this link.
Will have to wait for the smart guys to chime in, of course, but right now I do not see it.
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