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Correction to 'Latitudinal gradients in biotic niche breadth vary across ecosystem types
(Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Cirtwill, A. R., Stouffer, D. B., Romanuk, T. N. Tags: ecology Corrections Source Type: research

Hyoliths with pedicles illuminate the origin of the brachiopod body plan
Hyoliths are a taxonomically problematic group of Palaeozoic lophotrochozoans that are among the first shelly fossils to appear in the Cambrian period. On the basis of their distinctive exoskeleton, hyoliths have historically been classified as a separate phylum with possible affinities to the molluscs, sipunculans or lophophorates—but their precise phylogenetic position remains uncertain. Here, we describe a new orthothecide hyolith from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Cambrian Series 2 Stage 3), Pedunculotheca diania Sun, Zhao et Zhu gen. et sp. nov., which exhibits a non-mineralized attachment structure that s...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Sun, H., Smith, M. R., Zeng, H., Zhao, F., Li, G., Zhu, M. Tags: palaeontology Palaeobiology Source Type: research

Control of seminal fluid protein expression via regulatory hubs in Drosophila melanogaster
Highly precise, yet flexible and responsive coordination of expression across groups of genes underpins the integrity of many vital functions. However, our understanding of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) is often hampered by the lack of experimentally tractable systems, by significant computational challenges derived from the large number of genes involved or from difficulties in the accurate identification and characterization of gene interactions. Here we used a tractable experimental system in which to study GRNs: the genes encoding the seminal fluid proteins that are transferred along with sperm (the ‘transferom...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Mohorianu, I., Fowler, E. K., Dalmay, T., Chapman, T. Tags: evolution Source Type: research

An innovative ovipositor for niche exploitation impacts genital coevolution between sexes in a fruit-damaging Drosophila
Limited attention has been given to ecological factors influencing the coevolution of male and female genitalia. The innovative ovipositor of Drosophila suzukii, an invading fruit pest, represents an appealing case to document this phenomenon. The serrated saw-like ovipositor is used to pierce the hard skin of ripening fruits that are not used by other fruit flies that prefer soft decaying fruits. Here, we highlight another function of the ovipositor related to its involvement in genital coupling during copulation. We compared the morphology and coupling of male and female genitalia in this species to its sibling species, ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Muto, L., Kamimura, Y., Tanaka, K. M., Takahashi, A. Tags: ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Influence of early-life nutritional stress on songbird memory formation
In birds, vocal learning enables the production of sexually selected complex songs, dialects and song copy matching. But stressful conditions during development have been shown to affect song production and complexity, mediated by changes in neural development. However, to date, no studies have tested whether early-life stress affects the neural processes underlying vocal learning, in contrast to song production. Here, we hypothesized that developmental stress alters auditory memory formation and neural processing of song stimuli. We experimentally stressed male nestling zebra finches and, in two separate experiments, test...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Bell, B. A., Phan, M. L., Meillere, A., Evans, J. K., Leitner, S., Vicario, D. S., Buchanan, K. L. Tags: neuroscience, cognition, ecology Neuroscience and cognition Source Type: research

Pain relief provided by an outgroup member enhances analgesia
Pain feels different in different social contexts, yet the mechanisms behind social pain modulation remain poorly understood. To elucidate the impact of social context on pain processing, we investigated how group membership, one of the most important social context factors, shapes pain relief behaviourally and neurally in humans undergoing functional neuroimaging. Participants repeatedly received pain relief from a member of their own group (ingroup treatment) or a member of a disliked outgroup (outgroup treatment). We observed a decrease in pain ratings and anterior insula (AI) pain responses after outgroup treatment, bu...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 26, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Hein, G., Engelmann, J. B., Tobler, P. N. Tags: neuroscience, behaviour Neuroscience and cognition Source Type: research

Single mechanosensory neurons encode lateral displacements using precise spike timing and thresholds
During locomotion, animals rely on multiple sensory modalities to maintain stability. External cues may guide behaviour, but they must be interpreted in the context of the animal's own body movements. Mechanosensory cues that can resolve dynamic internal and environmental conditions, like those from vertebrate vestibular systems or other proprioceptors, are essential for guided movement. How do afferent proprioceptor neurons transform movement into a neural code? In flies, modified hindwings known as halteres detect forces produced by body rotations and are essential for flight. However, the mechanisms by which haltere neu...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Yarger, A. M., Fox, J. L. Tags: neuroscience, behaviour Neuroscience and cognition Source Type: research

Extinction risk in extant marine species integrating palaeontological and biodistributional data
Extinction risk assessments of marine invertebrate species remain scarce, which hinders effective management of marine biodiversity in the face of anthropogenic impacts. To help close this information gap, in this paper we provide a metric of relative extinction risk that combines palaeontological data, in the form of extinction rates calculated from the fossil record, with two known correlates of risk in the modern day: geographical range size and realized thermal niche. We test the performance of this metric—Palaeontological Extinction Risk In Lineages (PERIL)—using survivorship analyses of Pliocene bivalve f...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Collins, K. S., Edie, S. M., Hunt, G., Roy, K., Jablonski, D. Tags: palaeontology, ecology Global change and conservation Source Type: research

Punctuated plastome reduction and host-parasite horizontal gene transfer in the holoparasitic plant genus Aphyllon
Foundational studies of chloroplast genome (plastome) evolution in parasitic plants have focused on broad trends across large clades, particularly among the Orobanchaceae, a species-rich and ecologically diverse family of root parasites. However, the extent to which such patterns and processes of plastome evolution, such as stepwise gene loss following the complete loss of photosynthesis (shift to holoparasitism), are detectable at shallow evolutionary time scale is largely unknown. We used genome skimming to assemble eight chloroplast genomes representing complete taxonomic sampling of Aphyllon sect. Aphyllon, a small cla...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Schneider, A. C., Chun, H., Stefanovic, S., Baldwin, B. G. Tags: genomics, plant science, evolution Source Type: research

Sexual selection on multiple female ornaments in dance flies
Sex-specific ornaments typically occur in males, but they can also develop in females. While there are several models concerning the evolution of male-specific ornaments, it is not clear how, or under what circumstances, those models apply to female-specific ornament evolution. Here, we present a manipulative field experiment that explores the theoretical ‘trait space’ of multiple female-specific ornaments to study how these unusual traits evolved. We measured the attractiveness of two female-specific ornaments (pinnate leg scales and inflatable abdominal sacs) in the dance fly Rhamphomyia longicauda in a wild ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Murray, R. L., Wheeler, J., Gwynne, D. T., Bussiere, L. F. Tags: behaviour, evolution Source Type: research

Testing hypotheses for the function of the carnivoran baculum using finite-element analysis
The baculum (os penis) is a mineralized bone within the glans of the mammalian penis and is one of the most morphologically diverse structures in the mammal skeleton. Recent experimental work provides compelling evidence for sexual selection shaping the baculum, yet the functional mechanism by which this occurs remains unknown. Previous studies have tested biomechanical hypotheses for the role of the baculum based on simple metrics such as length and diameter, ignoring the wealth of additional shape complexity present. For the first time, to our knowledge, we apply a computational simulation approach (finite-element analys...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Brassey, C. A., Gardiner, J. D., Kitchener, A. C. Tags: biomechanics, evolution Morphology and biomechanics Source Type: research

Social tipping points in animal societies
Animal social groups are complex systems that are likely to exhibit tipping points—which are defined as drastic shifts in the dynamics of systems that arise from small changes in environmental conditions—yet this concept has not been carefully applied to these systems. Here, we summarize the concepts behind tipping points and describe instances in which they are likely to occur in animal societies. We also offer ways in which the study of social tipping points can open up new lines of inquiry in behavioural ecology and generate novel questions, methods, and approaches in animal behaviour and other fields, inclu...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Pruitt, J. N., Berdahl, A., Riehl, C., Pinter-Wollman, N., Moeller, H. V., Pringle, E. G., Aplin, L. M., Robinson, E. J. H., Grilli, J., Yeh, P., Savage, V. M., Price, M. H., Garland, J., Gilby, I. C., Crofoot, M. C., Doering, G. N., Hobson, E. A. Tags: behaviour Review articles Source Type: research

Bottlenose dolphins can understand their partner's role in a cooperative task
In recent decades, a number of studies have examined whether various non-human animals understand their partner's role in cooperative situations. Yet the relatively tolerant timing requirements of these tasks make it theoretically possible for animals to succeed by using simple behavioural strategies rather than by jointly intended coordination. Here we investigated whether bottlenose dolphins could understand a cooperative partner's role by testing whether they could learn a button-pressing task requiring precise behavioural synchronization. Specifically, members of cooperative dyads were required to swim across a lagoon ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Jaakkola, K., Guarino, E., Donegan, K., King, S. L. Tags: behaviour, cognition Source Type: research

The ecology of movement and behaviour: a saturated tripartite network for describing animal contacts
Ecologists regularly use animal contact networks to describe interactions underlying pathogen transmission, gene flow, and information transfer. However, empirical descriptions of contact often overlook some features of individual movement, and decisions about what kind of network to use in a particular setting are commonly ad hoc. Here, we relate individual movement trajectories to contact networks through a tripartite network model of individual, space, and time nodes. Most networks used in animal contact studies (e.g. individual association networks, home range overlap networks, and spatial networks) are simplifications...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 19, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Manlove, K., Aiello, C., Sah, P., Cummins, B., Hudson, P. J., Cross, P. C. Tags: behaviour, ecology, health and disease and epidemiology Source Type: research

Human-like Cmah inactivation in mice increases running endurance and decreases muscle fatigability: implications for human evolution
Compared to other primates, humans are exceptional long-distance runners, a feature that emerged in genus Homo approximately 2 Ma and is classically attributed to anatomical and physiological adaptations such as an enlarged gluteus maximus and improved heat dissipation. However, no underlying genetic changes have currently been defined. Two to three million years ago, an exon deletion in the CMP-Neu5Ac hydroxylase (CMAH) gene also became fixed in our ancestral lineage. Cmah loss in mice exacerbates disease severity in multiple mouse models for muscular dystrophy, a finding only partially attributed to differences in immune...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Okerblom, J., Fletes, W., Patel, H. H., Schenk, S., Varki, A., Breen, E. C. Tags: behaviour, physiology, evolution Source Type: research