The image is a reference to this analysis done in World War II, which might seem to suggest that the planes need more armour on the wings and tail, but actually shows that these areas aren’t important and that the engines and cockpit need armour if the plane is to survive to make it back to base (where the stats are correlated).
The surviving planes showed a bias in the data that leads to an incorrect conclusion, just like the surviving woody gymnosperms makes it seem like there weren’t non-woody gymnosperms.
The image is a reference to this analysis done in World War II, which might seem to suggest that the planes need more armour on the wings and tail, but actually shows that these areas aren’t important and that the engines and cockpit need armour if the plane is to survive to make it back to base (where the stats are correlated).
The surviving planes showed a bias in the data that leads to an incorrect conclusion, just like the surviving woody gymnosperms makes it seem like there weren’t non-woody gymnosperms.