| 1. |
- Smolla, Marco, et al.
(författare)
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Underappreciated features of cultural evolution
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954 .- 0962-8436 .- 1471-2970. ; 376:1828
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cultural evolution theory has long been inspired by evolutionary biology. Conceptual analogies between biological and cultural evolution have led to the adoption of a range of formal theoretical approaches from population dynamics and genetics. However, this has resulted in a research programme with a strong focus on cultural transmission. Here, we contrast biological with cultural evolution, and highlight aspects of cultural evolution that have not received sufficient attention previously. We outline possible implications for evolutionary dynamics and argue that not taking them into account will limit our understanding of cultural systems. We propose twelve key questions for future research, among which are calls to improve our understanding of the combinatorial properties of cultural innovation, and the role of development and life history in cultural dynamics. Finally, we discuss how this vibrant research field can make progress by embracing its multidisciplinary nature.
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| 2. |
- Andersson, Linus, et al.
(författare)
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A matter of time: Bateman's principles and mating success as count and duration across social strata in contemporary Finland
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 290:2002
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Bateman's principles heavily influence the understanding of human reproductive behaviour. Yet, few rigorous studies on Bateman's principles in contemporary industrialized populations exist. Most studies use small samples, exclude non-marital unions, and disregard recent insights on within-population heterogeneity in mating strategies. We assess mating success and reproductive success using population-wide Finnish register data on marital and non-marital cohabitations and fertility. We examine variability across social strata in the Bateman principles and analyse the mate count, the cumulated duration with a mate, and the association with reproductive success. Results support Bateman's first and second principles. Regarding Bateman's third principle, the number of mates is more positively associated with reproductive success for men than women, but this association is driven by ever having a mate. Having more than one mate is on average associated with lower reproductive success. However, for men in the lowest income quartile, having more than one mate positively predicts reproductive success. Longer union duration is associated with higher reproductive success, and more so for men. We note that sex differences in the relationship between mating success and reproductive success differ by social strata, and argue that mate duration may be an important component of mating success alongside mate count.
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| 3. |
- Anikin, Andrey, et al.
(författare)
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Harsh is large : Nonlinear vocal phenomena lower voice pitch and exaggerate body size
- 2021
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Ingår i: Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 1471-2954. ; 288:1954
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A lion’s roar, a dog’s bark, an angry yell in a pub brawl: what do these voca-lizations have in common? They all sound harsh due to nonlinear vocal phenomena (NLP)—deviations from regular voice production, hypothesized to lower perceived voice pitch and thereby exaggerate the apparent bodysize of the vocalizer. To test this yet uncorroborated hypothesis, we synthesized human nonverbal vocalizations, such as roars, groans and screams, with and without NLP (amplitude modulation, subharmonics and chaos).We then measured their effects on nearly 700 listeners’ perceptions of three psychoacoustic (pitch, timbre, roughness) and three ecological (body size, for-midability, aggression) characteristics. In an explicit rating task, all NLP lowered perceived voice pitch, increased voice darkness and roughness, and caused vocalizers to sound larger, more formidable and more aggressive. Key results were replicated in an implicit associations test, suggesting that the‘harsh is large’ bias will arise in ecologically relevant confrontational contexts that involve a rapid, and largely implicit, evaluation of the opponent’s size. In sum, nonlinearities in human vocalizations can flexibly communicate both formidability and intention to attack, suggesting they are not a mere byproduct of loud vocalizing, but rather an informative acoustic signal wellsuited for intimidating potential opponents.
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| 4. |
- Arnqvist, Göran, Professor, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Direct and indirect effects of male genital elaboration in female seed beetles
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - London : Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 288:1954
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Our understanding of coevolution between male genitalia and female traits remains incomplete. This is perhaps especially true for genital traits that cause internal injuries in females, such as the spiny genitalia of seed beetles where males with relatively long spines enjoy a high relative fertilization success. We report on a new set of experiments, based on extant selection lines, aimed at assessing the effects of long male spines on females in Callosobruchus maculatus . We first draw on an earlier study using microscale laser surgery, and demonstrate that genital spines have a direct negative (sexually antagonistic) effect on female fecundity. We then ask whether artificial selection for long versus short spines resulted in direct or indirect effects on female lifetime offspring production. Reference females mating with males from long-spine lines had higher offspring production, presumably due to an elevated allocation in males to those ejaculate components that are beneficial to females. Remarkably, selection for long male genital spines also resulted in an evolutionary increase in female offspring production as a correlated response. Our findings thus suggest that female traits that affect their response to male spines are both under direct selection to minimize harm but are also under indirect selection (a good genes effect), consistent with the evolution of mating and fertilization biases being affected by several simultaneous processes.
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| 5. |
- Arshamian, Artin, et al.
(författare)
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Human sickness detection is not dependent on cultural experience
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 288:1954
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Animals across phyla can detect early cues of infection in conspecifics, thereby reducing the risk of contamination. It is unknown, however, if humans can detect cues of sickness in people belonging to communities with whom they have limited or no experience. To test this, we presented Western faces photographed 2 h after the experimental induction of an acute immune response to one Western and five non-Western communities, including small-scale hunter-gatherer and large urban-dwelling communities. All communities could detect sick individuals. There were group differences in performance but Western participants, who observed faces from their own community, were not systematically better than all non-Western participants. At odds with the common belief that sickness detection of an out-group member should be biased to err on the side of caution, the majority of non-Western communities were unbiased. Our results show that subtle cues of a general immune response are recognized across cultures and may aid in detecting infectious threats.
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| 6. |
- Auld, Stuart K J R, et al.
(författare)
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The timings of host diapause and epidemic progression mediate host genetic diversity and future epidemic size in Daphnia-parasite populations.
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings. Biological sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 1471-2954. ; 290:1995
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Epidemics commonly exert parasite-mediated selection and cause declines in host population genetic diversity. This can lead to evolution of resistance in the long term and smaller subsequent epidemics. Alternatively, the loss of genetic diversity can increase host vulnerability to future disease spread and larger future epidemics. Matters are made more complex by the fact that a great many host organisms produce diapausing life stages in response to environmental change (often as a result of sexual reproduction; e.g. plant seeds and invertebrate resting eggs). These diapausing stages can disrupt the relationship between past epidemics, host genetic diversity and future epidemics because they allow host dispersal through time. Specifically, temporally dispersing hosts avoid infection and thus selection from contemporary parasites, and also archive genetic variation for the future. We studied 80 epidemics in 20 semi-natural populations of the temporally dispersing crustacean Daphnia magna and its sterilizing bacterial parasite Pasteuria ramosa, and half of these populations experienced a simulated environmental disturbance treatment. We found that early initiation of diapause relative to the timing of the epidemic led to greater host genetic diversity and reduced epidemic size in the subsequent year, but this was unaffected by environmental disturbance.
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| 7. |
- Baird, Emily, et al.
(författare)
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The effect of optic flow cues on honeybee flight control in wind
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 288:1943
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To minimize the risk of colliding with the ground or other obstacles, flying animals need to control both their ground speed and ground height. This task is particularly challenging in wind, where head winds require an animal to increase its airspeed to maintain a constant ground speed and tail winds may generate negative airspeeds, rendering flight more difficult to control. In this study, we investigate how head and tail winds affect flight control in the honeybee Apis mellifera, which is known to rely on the pattern of visual motion generated across the eye-known as optic flow-to maintain constant ground speeds and heights. We find that, when provided with both longitudinal and transverse optic flow cues (in or perpendicular to the direction of flight, respectively), honeybees maintain a constant ground speed but fly lower in head winds and higher in tail winds, a response that is also observed when longitudinal optic flow cues are minimized. When the transverse component of optic flow is minimized, or when all optic flow cues are minimized, the effect of wind on ground height is abolished. We propose that the regular sidewards oscillations that the bees make as they fly may be used to extract information about the distance to the ground, independently of the longitudinal optic flow that they use for ground speed control. This computationally simple strategy could have potential uses in the development of lightweight and robust systems for guiding autonomous flying vehicles in natural environments.
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| 8. |
- Balter, Leonie J. T., et al.
(författare)
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Sleep and subjective age : protect your sleep if you want to feel young
- 2024
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 291:2019
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The current studies examined the impact of insufficient sleep and sleepiness on the subjective experience of age. Study 1, a cross-sectional study of 429 participants (282 females (66%), 144 males, 3 other gender; age range 18-70), showed that for each additional day of insufficient sleep in the last 30 days, subjective age increased by 0.23 years. Study 2, an experimental crossover sleep restriction study (n = 186; 102 females (55%), 84 males; age range 18-46), showed that two nights of sleep restriction (4 h in bed per night) made people feel 4.44 years older compared to sleep saturation (9 h in bed per night). Additionally, moving from feeling extremely alert (Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) score of 1) to feeling extremely sleepy (KSS score of 9) was associated with feeling 10 years older in both studies. These findings provide compelling support for insufficient sleep and sleepiness to exert a substantial influence on how old we feel, and that safeguarding sleep is probably a key factor in feeling young.
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| 9. |
- Bartholomée, Océane, et al.
(författare)
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Shining a light on bumblebee foraging strategies: bumblebee species niche partitioning is related to visual sensory traits
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. - 1471-2954. ; 290:1996
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Local coexistence of bees has been explained by flower resource partitioning, but coexisting bumblebee species often have strongly overlapping diets. We investigated if light microhabitat niche separation, underpinned by visual traits, could serve as an alternative mechanism underlying local coexistence of bumblebee species. To this end, we focused on a homogeneous flower resource—bilberry—in a heterogeneous light environment—hemi-boreal forests. We found that bumblebee communities segregated along a gradient of light intensity. The community-weighted mean of the eye parameter—a metric measuring the compromise between light sensitivity and visual resolution—decreased with light intensity, showing a higher investment in light sensitivity of communities observed in darker conditions. This pattern was consistent at the species level. In general, species with higher eye parameter (larger investment in light sensitivity) foraged in dimmer light than those with a lower eye parameter (higher investment in visual resolution). Moreover, species realized niche optimum was linearly related to their eye parameter. These results suggest microhabitat niche partitioning to be a potential mechanism underpinning bumblebee species coexistence. This study highlights the importance of considering sensory traits when studying pollinator habitat use and their ability to cope with changing environments.
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| 10. |
- Bartholomée, Océane, et al.
(författare)
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Shining a light on species coexistence : visual traits drive bumblebee communities
- 2023
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Biological Sciences. - 0962-8452 .- 1471-2954. ; 290:1996
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Local coexistence of bees has been explained by flower resource partitioning, but coexisting bumblebee species often have strongly overlapping diets. We investigated if light microhabitat niche separation, underpinned by visual traits, could serve as an alternative mechanism underlying local coexistence of bumblebee species. To this end, we focused on a homogeneous flower resource—bilberry—in a heterogeneous light environment—hemi-boreal forests. We found that bumblebee communities segregated along a gradient of light intensity. The community-weighted mean of the eye parameter—a metric measuring the compromise between light sensitivity and visual resolution—decreased with light intensity, showing a higher investment in light sensitivity of communities observed in darker conditions. This pattern was consistent at the species level. In general, species with higher eye parameter (larger investment in light sensitivity) foraged in dimmer light than those with a lower eye parameter (higher investment in visual resolution). Moreover, species realized niche optimum was linearly related to their eye parameter. These results suggest microhabitat niche partitioning to be a potential mechanism underpinning bumblebee species coexistence. This study highlights the importance of considering sensory traits when studying pollinator habitat use and their ability to cope with changing environments.
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