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.

The influence of cactus spine surface structure on puncture performance and anchoring ability is tuned for ecology
Spines are common morphological features found in almost all major biological groups offering an opportunity to explore large-scale evolutionary convergence across disparate clades. As an example, opuntioid cacti have spines with barbed ornamentation that is remarkably similar in form and scale to that found on porcupine quills, suggesting specific biomechanical convergence across the animal and plant kingdoms. While the mechanics of porcupine quills as defensive mechanisms has been previously tested, the mechanics of cactus spines (which have evolved to fill a number of functions including defence, climbing and dispersal)...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Crofts, S. B., Anderson, P. S. L. Tags: plant science, biomechanics, ecology Morphology and biomechanics Source Type: research

Sex bias in ability to cope with cancer: Tasmanian devils and facial tumour disease
Knowledge of the ecological dynamics between hosts and pathogens during the initial stages of disease emergence is crucial to understanding the potential for evolution of new interspecific interactions. Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) populations have declined precipitously owing to infection by a transmissible cancer (devil facial tumour disease, DFTD) that emerged approximately 20 years ago. Since the emergence of DFTD, and as the disease spreads across Tasmania, the number of devils has dropped up to 90% across 80% of the species's distributional range. As a result, the disease is expected to act as a strong sele...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Ruiz-Aravena, M., Jones, M. E., Carver, S., Estay, S., Espejo, C., Storfer, A., Hamede, R. K. Tags: physiology, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Frogs adapt to physiologically costly anthropogenic noise
Human activities impose novel pressures on amphibians, which are experiencing unprecedented global declines, yet population-level responses are poorly understood. A growing body of literature has revealed that noise is an anthropogenic stressor that impacts ecological processes spanning subcellular to ecosystem levels. These consequences can impose novel selective pressures on populations, yet whether populations can adapt to noise is unknown. We tested for adaptation to traffic noise, a widespread sensory ‘pollutant’. We collected eggs of wood frogs (Rana sylvatica) from populations from different traffic nois...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Tennessen, J. B., Parks, S. E., Swierk, L., Reinert, L. K., Holden, W. M., Rollins-Smith, L. A., Walsh, K. A., Langkilde, T. Tags: physiology, ecology Global change and conservation Source Type: research

Cultural revolutions reduce complexity in the songs of humpback whales
We examined two measures of song structure, complexity and entropy, in the eastern Australian population over 13 consecutive years. These measures aimed to identify the role of complexity and information content in the vocal learning processes of humpback whales. Complexity was quantified at two hierarchical levels: the entire sequence of individual sound ‘units’ and the stereotyped arrangements of units which comprise a ‘theme’. Complexity increased as songs evolved over time but decreased when revolutions occurred. No correlation between complexity and entropy estimates suggests that changes to co...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Allen, J. A., Garland, E. C., Dunlop, R. A., Noad, M. J. Tags: behaviour, cognition, ecology Source Type: research

The role of citizen science in addressing grand challenges in food and agriculture research
The power of citizen science to contribute to both science and society is gaining increased recognition, particularly in physics and biology. Although there is a long history of public engagement in agriculture and food science, the term ‘citizen science’ has rarely been applied to these efforts. Similarly, in the emerging field of citizen science, most new citizen science projects do not focus on food or agriculture. Here, we convened thought leaders from a broad range of fields related to citizen science, agriculture, and food science to highlight key opportunities for bridging these overlapping yet disconnec...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Ryan, S. F., Adamson, N. L., Aktipis, A., Andersen, L. K., Austin, R., Barnes, L., Beasley, M. R., Bedell, K. D., Briggs, S., Chapman, B., Cooper, C. B., Corn, J. O., Creamer, N. G., Delborne, J. A., Domenico, P., Driscoll, E., Goodwin, J., Hjarding, A., Tags: plant science, ecology, environmental science Review articles Source Type: research

Discovery and exploitation of a natural ecological trap for a mosquito disease vector
Ecological traps occur due to a mismatch between a habitat's attractiveness and quality, wherein organisms show preference for low-quality habitats over other available high-quality habitats. Our previous research identified leaf litter from common blackberry (Rubus allegheniensis) as a natural ecological trap for an important vector for West Nile virus (Culex pipiens), attracting mosquitoes to oviposit in habitats deleterious to the survival of their larvae. Here we demonstrate that manipulation of leaf litter in stormwater catch basins, an important source of disease vector mosquitoes in urban environments, can increase ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Gardner, A. M., Muturi, E. J., Allan, B. F. Tags: ecology Source Type: research

Rethinking dopamine as generalized prediction error
Midbrain dopamine neurons are commonly thought to report a reward prediction error (RPE), as hypothesized by reinforcement learning (RL) theory. While this theory has been highly successful, several lines of evidence suggest that dopamine activity also encodes sensory prediction errors unrelated to reward. Here, we develop a new theory of dopamine function that embraces a broader conceptualization of prediction errors. By signalling errors in both sensory and reward predictions, dopamine supports a form of RL that lies between model-based and model-free algorithms. This account remains consistent with current canon regardi...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Gardner, M. P. H., Schoenbaum, G., Gershman, S. J. Tags: neuroscience, computational biology Neuroscience and cognition Source Type: research

Reproductive control via the threat of eviction in the clown anemonefish
In social groups, high reproductive skew is predicted to arise when the reproductive output of a group is limited, and dominant individuals can suppress subordinate reproductive efforts. Reproductive suppression is often assumed to occur via overt aggression or the threat of eviction. It is unclear, however, whether the threat of eviction alone is sufficient to induce reproductive restraint by subordinates. Here, we test two assumptions of the restraint model of reproductive skew by investigating whether resource limitation generates reproductive competition and whether the threat of eviction leads to reproductive restrain...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Rueger, T., Barbasch, T. A., Wong, M. Y. L., Srinivasan, M., Jones, G. P., Buston, P. M. Tags: behaviour, evolution Source Type: research

Is biasing offspring sex ratio adaptive? A test of Fisher's principle across multiple generations of a wild mammal in a fluctuating environment
Fisher's principle explains that population sex ratio in sexually reproducing organisms is maintained at 1 : 1 owing to negative frequency-dependent selection, such that individuals of the rare sex realize greater reproductive opportunity than individuals of the more common sex until equilibrium is reached. If biasing offspring sex ratio towards the rare sex is adaptive, individuals that do so should have more grandoffspring. In a wild population of North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) that experiences fluctuations in resource abundance and population density, we show that overall across 26 years, the sec...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 21, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Wishart, A. E., Williams, C. T., McAdam, A. G., Boutin, S., Dantzer, B., Humphries, M. M., Coltman, D. W., Lane, J. E. Tags: ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Metrics matter: the effect of parasite richness, intensity and prevalence on the evolution of host migration
Parasites have long been thought to influence the evolution of migration, but precisely determining the conditions under which this occurs by quantifying costs of infection remains a challenge. Here we developed a model that demonstrates how the metric used to describe infection (richness/diversity, prevalence or intensity) shapes the prediction of whether migration will evolve. The model shows that predictions based on minimizing richness yield opposite results compared to those based on minimizing prevalence, with migration only selected for when minimizing prevalence. Consistent with these findings, empirical studies th...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 14, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Shaw, A. K., Sherman, J., Barker, F. K., Zuk, M. Tags: behaviour, evolution, health and disease and epidemiology Source Type: research

Insights into the roles of CMK-1 and OGT-1 in interstimulus interval-dependent habituation in Caenorhabditis elegans
Habituation is a ubiquitous form of non-associative learning observed as a decrement in responding to repeated stimulation that cannot be explained by sensory adaptation or motor fatigue. One of the defining characteristics of habituation is its sensitivity to the rate at which training stimuli are presented—animals habituate faster in response to more rapid stimulation. The molecular mechanisms underlying this interstimulus interval (ISI)-dependent characteristic of habituation remain unknown. In this article, we use behavioural neurogenetic and bioinformatic analyses in the nematode Caenorhabiditis elegans to ident...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 14, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Ardiel, E. L., McDiarmid, T. A., Timbers, T. A., Lee, K. C. Y., Safaei, J., Pelech, S. L., Rankin, C. H. Tags: neuroscience, behaviour, genetics Source Type: research

Adaptation, speciation and extinction in the Anthropocene
Humans have dramatically altered the planet over the course of a century, from the acidity of our oceans to the fragmentation of our landscapes and the temperature of our climate. Species find themselves in novel environments, within communities assembled from never before encountered mixtures of invasives and natives. The speed with which the biotic and abiotic environment of species has changed has already altered the evolutionary trajectory of species, a trend that promises to escalate. In this article, I reflect upon this altered course of evolution. Human activities have reshaped selection pressures, favouring individ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 14, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Otto, S. P. Tags: evolution Review articles Source Type: research

Multiple paternity and number of offspring in mammals
Many cooperative social attributes are being linked to characteristics of mating systems, particularly to the rate of multiple paternity that typifies a population. Under the logic that greater offspring production by females should engender greater competition among males to mate with females, it is predicted that multiple paternity should increase with litter sizes. We tested the predicted positive association of multiple paternity and litter size with a meta-analysis of 59 species of mammals. The probability of multiple paternity and mean litter size were positively correlated, but not significantly (Zr = 0.202). Also, ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 14, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Dobson, F. S., Abebe, A., Correia, H. E., Kasumo, C., Zinner, B. Tags: behaviour, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Comparative biogeography: innovations and the rise to dominance of the North Pacific biota
The North Pacific is the largest cold-water source of lineages spreading to other modern marine temperate biotas. How this status was achieved remains unclear. One hypothesis is that functional innovations of large effect, defined as departures from the norm in temperate clades and which confer competitive or defensive benefits, increase resource availability, and raise performance standards in the biota as a whole, evolved earlier and more frequently in the North Pacific than elsewhere in the temperate zone. In support of this hypothesis, phylogenetic and fossil evidence reveals 47 temperate marine innovations beginning i...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 14, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Vermeij, G. J. Tags: palaeontology, evolution Palaeobiology Source Type: research

Microbial-tubeworm associations in a 440 million year old hydrothermal vent community
Microorganisms are the chief primary producers within present-day deep-sea hydrothermal vent ecosystems, and play a fundamental role in shaping the ecology of these environments. However, very little is known about the microbes that occurred within, and structured, ancient vent communities. The evolutionary history, diversity and the nature of interactions between ancient vent microorganisms and hydrothermal vent animals are largely undetermined. The oldest known hydrothermal vent community that includes metazoans is preserved within the Ordovician to early Silurian Yaman Kasy massive sulfide deposit, Ural Mountains, Russi...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - November 14, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Georgieva, M. N., Little, C. T. S., Bailey, R. J., Ball, A. D., Glover, A. G. Tags: palaeontology, evolution Palaeobiology Source Type: research