Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Inbred burying beetles suffer fitness costs from making poor decisions
There is growing interest in how environmental conditions, such as resource availability, can modify the severity of inbreeding depression. However, little is known about whether inbreeding depression is also associated with differences in individual decision-making. For example, decisions about how many offspring to produce are often based upon the prevailing environmental conditions, such as resource availability, and getting these decisions wrong may have important fitness consequences for both parents and offspring. We tested for effects of inbreeding on individual decision-making in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vesp...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 27, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Richardson, J., Comin, P., Smiseth, P. T. Tags: behaviour, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Phylogenomics resolves the deep phylogeny of seed plants and indicates partial convergent or homoplastic evolution between Gnetales and angiosperms
After decades of molecular phylogenetic studies, the deep phylogeny of gymnosperms has not been resolved, and the phylogenetic placement of Gnetales remains one of the most controversial issues in seed plant evolution. To resolve the deep phylogeny of seed plants and to address the sources of phylogenetic conflict, we conducted a phylotranscriptomic study with a sampling of all 13 families of gymnosperms and main lineages of angiosperms. Multiple datasets containing up to 1 296 042 sites across 1308 loci were analysed, using concatenation and coalescence approaches. Our study generated a consistent and well-resolved phylog...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Ran, J.-H., Shen, T.-T., Wang, M.-M., Wang, X.-Q. Tags: evolution Source Type: research

Parasite-infected sticklebacks increase the risk-taking behaviour of uninfected group members
Trophically transmitted parasites frequently increase their hosts' risk-taking behaviour, to facilitate transmission to the next host. Whether such elevated risk-taking can spill over to uninfected group members is, however, unknown. To investigate this, we confronted groups of 6 three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, containing 0, 2, 4 or 6 experimentally infected individuals with a simulated bird attack and studied their risk-taking behaviour. As a parasite, we used the tapeworm Schistocephalus solidus, which increases the risk-taking of infected sticklebacks, to facilitate transmission to its final host, mos...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Demandt, N., Saus, B., Kurvers, R. H. J. M., Krause, J., Kurtz, J., Scharsack, J. P. Tags: behaviour Source Type: research

Cyclic dominance emerges from the evolution of two inter-linked cooperative behaviours in the social amoeba
Evolution of cooperation has been one of the most important problems in sociobiology, and many researchers have revealed mechanisms that can facilitate the evolution of cooperation. However, most studies deal only with one cooperative behaviour, even though some organisms perform two or more cooperative behaviours. The social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum performs two cooperative behaviours in starvation: fruiting body formation and macrocyst formation. Here, we constructed a model that couples these two behaviours, and we found that the two behaviours are maintained because of the emergence of cyclic dominance, although...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Shibasaki, S., Shimada, M. Tags: theoretical biology, evolution Source Type: research

The biomechanics of foraging determines face length among kangaroos and their relatives
Increasing body size is accompanied by facial elongation across a number of mammalian taxa. This trend forms the basis of a proposed evolutionary rule, cranial evolutionary allometry (CREA). However, facial length has also been widely associated with the varying mechanical resistance of foods. Here, we combine geometric morphometrics and computational biomechanical analyses to determine whether evolutionary allometry or feeding ecology have been dominant influences on facial elongation across 16 species of kangaroos and relatives (Macropodiformes). We found no support for an allometric trend. Nor was craniofacial morpholog...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Mitchell, D. R., Sherratt, E., Ledogar, J. A., Wroe, S. Tags: biomechanics, ecology, evolution Morphology and biomechanics Source Type: research

The evolution of juvenile susceptibility to infectious disease
Infection prior to reproduction usually carries greater fitness costs for hosts than infection later in life, suggesting selection should tend to favour juvenile resistance. Yet, juveniles are generally more susceptible than adults across a wide spectrum of host taxa. While physiological constraints and a lack of prior exposure can explain some of this pattern, studies in plants and insects suggest that hosts may trade off juvenile susceptibility against other life-history traits. However, it is unclear precisely how trade-offs shape the evolution of juvenile susceptibility. Here, we theoretically explore the evolution of ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Ashby, B., Bruns, E. Tags: theoretical biology, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Mutual visual signalling between the cleaner shrimp Ancylomenes pedersoni and its client fish
Cleaner shrimp and their reef fish clients are an interspecific mutualistic interaction that is thought to be mediated by signals, and a useful system for studying the dynamics of interspecific signalling. To demonstrate signalling, one must show that purported signals at minimum (a) result in a consistent state change in the receiver and (b) contain reliable information about the sender's intrinsic state or future behaviour. Additionally, signals must be perceptible by receivers. Here, we document fundamental attributes of the signalling system between the cleaner shrimp Ancylomenes pedersoni and its clients. First, we us...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Caves, E. M., Green, P. A., Johnsen, S. Tags: behaviour Source Type: research

Future effects of climate and land-use change on terrestrial vertebrate community diversity under different scenarios
Land-use and climate change are among the greatest threats facing biodiversity, but understanding their combined effects has been hampered by modelling and data limitations, resulting in part from the very different scales at which land-use and climate processes operate. I combine two different modelling paradigms to predict the separate and combined (additive) effects of climate and land-use change on terrestrial vertebrate communities under four different scenarios. I predict that climate-change effects are likely to become a major pressure on biodiversity in the coming decades, probably matching or exceeding the effects...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Newbold, T. Tags: ecology Source Type: research

Adaptive developmental plasticity in rhesus macaques: the serotonin transporter gene interacts with maternal care to affect juvenile social behaviour
Research has increasingly highlighted the role that developmental plasticity—the ability of a particular genotype to produce variable phenotypes in response to different early environments—plays as an adaptive mechanism. One of the most widely studied genetic contributors to developmental plasticity in humans and rhesus macaques is a serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR), which determines transcriptional efficiency of the serotonin transporter gene in vitro and modifies the availability of synaptic serotonin in these species. A majority of studies to date have shown that carriers of a ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Madrid, J. E., Mandalaywala, T. M., Coyne, S. P., Ahloy-Dallaire, J., Garner, J. P., Barr, C. S., Maestripieri, D., Parker, K. J. Tags: neuroscience, behaviour, evolution Development and physiology Source Type: research

Intercontinental karyotype-environment parallelism supports a role for a chromosomal inversion in local adaptation in a seaweed fly
Large chromosomal rearrangements are thought to facilitate adaptation to heterogeneous environments by limiting genomic recombination. Indeed, inversions have been implicated in adaptation along environmental clines and in ecotype specialization. Here, we combine classical ecological studies and population genetics to investigate an inversion polymorphism previously documented in Europe among natural populations of the seaweed fly Coelopa frigida along a latitudinal cline in North America. We test if the inversion is present in North America and polymorphic, assess which environmental conditions modulate the inversion kary...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Merot, C., Berdan, E. L., Babin, C., Normandeau, E., Wellenreuther, M., Bernatchez, L. Tags: genetics, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Ocean warming alters predicted microbiome functionality in a common sea urchin
The microbiome of sea urchins plays a role in maintaining digestive health and innate immunity. Here, we investigated the effects of long-term (90 day) exposure to elevated seawater temperatures on the microbiome of the common, subtropical sea urchin Lytechinus variegatus. The community composition and diversity of microbes varied according to the type of sample collected from the sea urchin (seawater, feed, intestines, coelomic fluid, digested pellet and faeces), with the lowest microbial diversity (predominately the order Campylobacterales) located in the intestinal tissue. Sea urchins exposed to near-future seawater tem...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Brothers, C. J., Van Der Pol, W. J., Morrow, C. D., Hakim, J. A., Koo, H., McClintock, J. B. Tags: microbiology, ecology Source Type: research

Naked chancelloriids from the lower Cambrian of China show evidence for sponge-type growth
Chancelloriids are an extinct group of spiny Cambrian animals of uncertain phylogenetic position. Despite their sponge-like body plan, their spines are unlike modern sponge spicules, but share several features with the sclerites of certain Cambrian bilaterians, notably halkieriids. However, a proposed homology of these ‘coelosclerites' implies complex transitions in body plan evolution. A new species of chancelloriid, Allonnia nuda, from the lower Cambrian (Stage 3) Chengjiang Lagerstätte is distinguished by its large size and sparse spination, with modified apical sclerites surrounding an opening into the bo...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Cong, P.-Y., Harvey, T. H. P., Williams, M., Siveter, D. J., Siveter, D. J., Gabbott, S. E., Li, Y.-J., Wei, F., Hou, X.-G. Tags: palaeontology, evolution Palaeobiology Source Type: research

State-dependent risk-taking
Who takes risks, and when? The relative state model proposes two non-independent selection pressures governing risk-taking: need-based and ability-based. The need-based account suggests that actors take risks when they cannot reach target states with low-risk options (consistent with risk-sensitivity theory). The ability-based account suggests that actors engage in risk-taking when they possess traits or abilities that increase the expected value of risk-taking (by increasing the probability of success, enhancing payoffs for success or buffering against failure). Adaptive risk-taking involves integrating both consideration...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Barclay, P., Mishra, S., Sparks, A. M. Tags: behaviour, theoretical biology, cognition Source Type: research

Higher flight activity in the offspring of migrants compared to residents in a migratory insect
Migration has evolved among many animal taxa and migratory species are found across all major lineages. Insects are the most abundant and diverse terrestrial migrants, with trillions of animals migrating annually. Partial migration, where populations consist of resident and migratory individuals, is ubiquitous among many taxa. However, the underlying mechanisms are relatively poorly understood and may be driven by physiological, behavioural or genetic variation within populations. We investigated the differences in migratory tendency between migratory and resident phenotypes of the hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus, using tet...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Dällenbach, L. J., Glauser, A., Lim, K. S., Chapman, J. W., Menz, M. H. M. Tags: behaviour Source Type: research

Long-distance dispersal over land by fishes: extremely rare ecological events become probable over millennial timescales
(Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Martin, C. H., Turner, B. J. Tags: ecology, evolution Source Type: research