False cause (non causa pro causa)

Biological Parallel

Coral reefs bleach when ocean temperatures rise—temperature causes bleaching, right? Partially. The mechanism: heat stresses coral's symbiotic zooxanthellae (algae), which produce toxins, forcing coral to expel them. The proximate cause is toxin production, not temperature directly. False cause conflates correlation with mechanism. Biology is mechanistic: identifying the causal chain (temperature → stress → toxin → expulsion) requires decomposing surface correlations into processual steps.