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.

Geologic and hydrologic concerns about pupfish divergence during the last glacial maximum
(Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 20, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Knott, J. R., Phillips, F. M., Reheis, M. C., Sada, D., Jayko, A., Axen, G. Tags: genetics, genomics, evolution Source Type: research

Individual variation in the compromise between social group membership and exposure to preferred temperatures
Group living is widespread among animal species, and comes with a number of costs and benefits associated with foraging, predator avoidance and reproduction. It is largely unknown, however, whether individuals sacrifice exposure to their own preferred or optimal environmental conditions so they can remain part of a social group. Here, we demonstrate that individual three-spine sticklebacks vary in the degree to which they forego exposure to their preferred ambient temperature so they can associate with a group of conspecifics. Individual fish varied widely in preferred temperature when tested in isolation. When the same in...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 13, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Cooper, B., Adriaenssens, B., Killen, S. S. Tags: behaviour, physiology, ecology Source Type: research

To adapt or go extinct? The fate of megafaunal palm fruits under past global change
Past global change may have forced animal-dispersed plants with megafaunal fruits to adapt or go extinct, but these processes have remained unexplored at broad spatio-temporal scales. Here, we combine phylogenetic, distributional and fruit size data for more than 2500 palm (Arecaceae) species in a time-slice diversification analysis to quantify how extinction and adaptation have changed over deep time. Our results indicate that extinction rates of palms with megafaunal fruits have increased in the New World since the onset of the Quaternary (2.6 million years ago). In contrast, Old World palms show a Quaternary increase in...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 13, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Onstein, R. E., Baker, W. J., Couvreur, T. L. P., Faurby, S., Herrera-Alsina, L., Svenning, J.-C., Kissling, W. D. Tags: taxonomy and systematics, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

The gibbon's Achilles tendon revisited: consequences for the evolution of the great apes?
The well-developed Achilles tendon in humans is generally interpreted as an adaptation for mechanical energy storage and reuse during cyclic locomotion. All other extant great apes have a short tendon and long-fibred triceps surae, which is thought to be beneficial for locomotion in a complex arboreal habitat as this morphology enables a large range of motion. Surprisingly, highly arboreal gibbons show a more human-like triceps surae with a long Achilles tendon. Evidence for a spring-like function similar to humans is not conclusive. We revisit and integrate our anatomical and biomechanical data to calculate the energy tha...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 13, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Aerts, P., D'Aout, K., Thorpe, S., Berillon, G., Vereecke, E. Tags: biomechanics, evolution Morphology and biomechanics Source Type: research

Regulation between personality traits: individual social tendencies modulate whether boldness and leadership are correlated
Although consistent behavioural differences between individuals (i.e. personality variation) are now well established in animals, these differences are not always expressed when individuals interact in social groups. This can be key in important social dynamics such as leadership, which is often positively related to personality traits such as boldness. Individuals consistently differ in how social they are (their sociability), so if other axes of personality variation, such as boldness, can be suppressed during social interactions, this suppression should be stronger in more sociable individuals. We measured boldness (lat...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - June 13, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Bevan, P. A., Gosetto, I., Jenkins, E. R., Barnes, I., Ioannou, C. C. Tags: behaviour Source Type: research