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.

Niche conservatism and elevated diversification shape species diversity in drylands: evidence from Zygophyllaceae
The integrated contributions of climate and macroevolutionary processes to global patterns of species diversity are still controversial in spite of a long history of studies. The niche conservatism hypothesis and the net diversification rate hypothesis have gained wide attention in recent literature. Many studies have tested these two hypotheses for woody species in humid forests; however, the determinants of species diversity patterns for arid-adapted plants remain largely ignored. Here, using a molecular phylogeny and the global distributions of Zygophyllaceae, a typical arid-adapted plant family, we assessed the effects...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 31, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Wang, Q., Wu, S., Su, X., Zhang, L., Xu, X., Lyu, L., Cai, H., Shrestha, N., Liu, Y., Wang, W., Wang, Z. Tags: ecology Source Type: research

The functional role of serial dependence
The world tends to be stable from moment to moment, leading to strong serial correlations in natural scenes. As similar stimuli usually require similar behavioural responses, it is highly likely that the brain has developed strategies to leverage these regularities. A good deal of recent psychophysical evidence is beginning to show that the brain is sensitive to serial correlations, causing strong drifts in observer responses towards previously seen stimuli. However, it is still not clear that this tendency leads to a functional advantage. Here, we test a formal model of optimal serial dependence and show that as predicted...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 31, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Cicchini, G. M., Mikellidou, K., Burr, D. C. Tags: neuroscience, behaviour, computational biology Neuroscience and cognition Source Type: research

Nocturnal giants: evolution of the sensory ecology in elephant birds and other palaeognaths inferred from digital brain reconstructions
The recently extinct Malagasy elephant birds (Palaeognathae, Aepyornithiformes) included the largest birds that ever lived. Elephant bird neuroanatomy is understudied but can shed light on the lifestyle of these enigmatic birds. Palaeoneurological studies can provide clues to the ecologies and behaviours of extinct birds because avian brain shape is correlated with neurological function. We digitally reconstruct endocasts of two elephant bird species, Aepyornis maximus and A. hildebrandti, and compare them with representatives of all major extant and recently extinct palaeognath lineages. Among palaeognaths, we find large ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 31, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Torres, C. R., Clarke, J. A. Tags: palaeontology, ecology, evolution Palaeobiology Source Type: research

Prey productivity and predictability drive different axes of life-history variation in carnivorous marsupials
Variation in life-history strategies has usually been characterized as a single fast–slow continuum of life-history variation, in which mean lifespan increases with age at maturity as reproductive output at each breeding event declines. Analyses of plants and animals suggest that strategies of reproductive timing can vary on an independent axis, with iteroparous species at one extreme and semelparous species at the other. Insectivorous marsupials in the Family Dasyuridae have an unusually wide range of life-history strategies on both purported axes. We test and confirm that reproductive output and degree of iteropari...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 31, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Collett, R. A., Baker, A. M., Fisher, D. O. Tags: theoretical biology, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Reciprocal mimicry: kin selection can drive defended prey to resemble their Batesian mimics
Established mimicry theory predicts that Batesian mimics are selected to resemble their defended models, while models are selected to become dissimilar from their mimics. However, this theory has mainly considered individual selection acting on solitary organisms such as adult butterflies. Although Batesian mimicry of social insects is common, the few existing applications of kin selection theory to mimicry have emphasized relatedness among mimics rather than among models. Here, we present a signal detection model of Batesian mimicry in which the population of defended model prey is kin structured. Our analysis shows for m...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 31, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Holen, O. H., Johnstone, R. A. Tags: behaviour, theoretical biology, evolution Source Type: research

How can we improve identification of contagious individuals? Factors influencing sickness detection
(Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Axelsson, J., Sundelin, T., Lasselin, J., Lekander, M. Tags: behaviour, evolution Source Type: research

Computational biomechanical analyses demonstrate similar shell-crushing abilities in modern and ancient arthropods
The biology of the American horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus, is well documented—including its dietary habits, particularly the ability to crush shell with gnathobasic walking appendages—but virtually nothing is known about the feeding biomechanics of this iconic arthropod. Limulus polyphemus is also considered the archetypal functional analogue of various extinct groups with serial gnathobasic appendages, including eurypterids, trilobites and other early arthropods, especially Sidneyia inexpectans from the mid-Cambrian (508 Myr) Burgess Shale of Canada. Exceptionally preserved specimens of S. inexpectans sho...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Bicknell, R. D. C., Ledogar, J. A., Wroe, S., Gutzler, B. C., Watson, W. H., Paterson, J. R. Tags: palaeontology, biomechanics, evolution Morphology and biomechanics Source Type: research

Human variation in the shape of the birth canal is significant and geographically structured
The human birth canal shows a tight fit with the size of the neonate, which can lead to obstetric complications. This is not the case in other apes, and has been explained as the outcome of conflicting evolutionary pressures for bipedal locomotion and parturition of a highly encephalized fetus. Despite the suggested evolutionary constraints on the female pelvis, we show that women are, in fact, extremely variable in the shape of the bony birth canal, with human populations having differently shaped pelvic canals. Neutral evolution through genetic drift and differential migration are largely responsible for the observed pat...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Betti, L., Manica, A. Tags: evolution Source Type: research

Estimating apparent survival of songbirds crossing the Gulf of Mexico during autumn migration
Many migratory bird species are declining, and the migratory period may limit populations because of the risk in traversing large geographical features during passage. Using automated radio-telemetry, we tracked 139 Swainson's thrushes (Catharus ustulatus) departing coastal Alabama, USA and crossing the Gulf of Mexico to arrive in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico during autumn. We estimated apparent survival and examined how extrinsic (weather variables and day of year) and intrinsic (fat load, sex and age) factors influenced survival using a mark-recapture approach. We also examined how favourability of winds for crossing th...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Ward, M. P., Benson, T. J., Deppe, J., Zenzal, T. J., Diehl, R. H., Celis-Murillo, A., Bolus, R., Moore, F. R. Tags: behaviour, ecology Source Type: research

Size matters: height, cell number and a person's risk of cancer
The multistage model of carcinogenesis predicts cancer risk will increase with tissue size, since more cells provide more targets for oncogenic somatic mutation. However, this increase is not seen among mammal species of different sizes (Peto's paradox), a paradox argued to be due to larger species evolving added cancer suppression. If this explanation is correct, the cell number effect is still expected within species. Consistent with this, the hazard ratio for overall cancer risk per 10 cm increase in human height (HR10) is about 1.1, indicating a 10% increase in cancer risk per 10 cm; however, an alternative explanation...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Nunney, L. Tags: theoretical biology, evolution, health and disease and epidemiology Source Type: research

Seasonally sympatric but allochronic: differential expression of hypothalamic genes in a songbird during gonadal development
Allochrony, the mismatch of reproductive schedules, is one mechanism that can mediate sympatric speciation and diversification. In songbirds, the transition into breeding condition and gonadal growth is regulated by the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal (HPG) axis at multiple levels. We investigated whether the difference in reproductive timing between two seasonally sympatric subspecies of dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) was related to gene expression along the HPG axis. During the sympatric pre-breeding stage, we measured hypothalamic and testicular mRNA expression of candidate genes via qPCR in captive male j...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Bauer, C. M., Fudickar, A. M., Anderson-Buckingham, S., Abolins-Abols, M., Atwell, J. W., Ketterson, E. D., Greives, T. J. Tags: neuroscience, physiology, evolution Development and physiology Source Type: research

Rearing a virulent common cuckoo is not extra costly for its only cavity-nesting host
Virulent brood parasites refrain from arduous parental care, often kill host progeny and inflict rearing costs upon their hosts. Quantifying the magnitude of such costs across the whole period of care (from incubation through to parasite fledgling independence) is essential for understanding the selection pressures on hosts to evolve antiparasitic defences. Despite the central importance of such costs for our understanding of coevolutionary dynamics, they have not yet been comprehensively quantified in any host of any avian brood parasite. We quantified parasite-rearing costs in common redstarts Phoenicurus phoenicurus rai...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Samas, P., Rutila, J., Honza, M., Kysucan, M., Grim, T. Tags: behaviour Source Type: research

A test of the European Pleistocene refugial paradigm, using a Western Palaearctic endemic bird species
Hewitt's paradigm for effects of Pleistocene glaciations on European populations assumes their isolation in peninsular refugia during glacial maxima, followed by re-colonization of broader Europe during interstadials. This paradigm is well supported by studies of poorly dispersing taxa, but highly dispersive birds have not been included. To test this paradigm, we use the dunnock (Prunella modularis), a Western Palaearctic endemic whose range includes all major European refugia. MtDNA gene tree, multilocus species tree and species delimitation analyses indicate the presence of three distinct lineages: one in the Iberian ref...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Drovetski, S. V., Fadeev, I. V., Rakovic, M., Lopes, R. J., Boano, G., Pavia, M., Koblik, E. A., Lohman, Y. V., Red'kin, Y. A., Aghayan, S. A., Reis, S., Drovetskaya, S. S., Voelker, G. Tags: taxonomy and systematics, genetics, evolution Source Type: research

Group and kin recognition via olfactory cues in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
Primates were traditionally thought to have a reduced sense of smell. Although there is now evidence that olfaction plays a greater role in primate social life than previously assumed, research on the sense of smell in non-human apes is scarce. Chimpanzees sniff the ground and vegetation on boundary patrols, but the function of this behaviour is unclear. Since chimpanzees are highly territorial and can kill individuals that do not belong to their own community, sniffing might function to gather information about conspecifics, particularly concerning group membership and kinship. To investigate whether chimpanzees recognize...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Henkel, S., Setchell, J. M. Tags: behaviour, cognition, ecology Source Type: research

Identification of acutely sick people: individual differences and social information use
(Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - October 24, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Kurvers, R. H. J. M., Wolf, M. Tags: behaviour, cognition Source Type: research