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- Botterill-James, Thomas, et al.
(author)
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Family aggression in a social lizard
- 2017
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In: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 7:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The evolution of family living is underpinned by conflict and cooperation between family members. While family groups can be maintained by reducing conflict between parents and offspring, interactions between siblings may play an equally important role. Here, we compared the level of aggressive interactions between siblings to that between parents and their offspring in the family living skink Liopholis whitii. Aggressive interactions occurred much more frequently between siblings and between fathers and offspring than between mothers and their offspring. These results suggest that ecological and social conditions that reduce conflict between siblings and between males and offspring will be fundamental in the evolutionary maintenance and diversification of family living in these lizards.
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- Halliwell, Ben, et al.
(author)
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Habitat saturation promotes delayed dispersal in a social reptile
- 2017
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In: Behavioral Ecology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1045-2249 .- 1465-7279. ; 28:2, s. 515-522
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- When and where offspring disperse has important implications for the evolutionary emergence and maintenance of group living. In noncooperative breeders, direct benefits of delayed dispersal are relatively limited, suggesting that decisions regarding whether or not to remain in the parental territory are largely driven by the availability of suitable habitat in which to settle. Although there is ample evidence of correlations between habitat saturation and delayed dispersal, experimental tests are rare, particularly for species with facultative group formation. We manipulated the density of conspecifics in enclosed populations of a family living reptile to experimentally evaluate the influence of habitat saturation on the tendency to delay dispersal. Habitat saturation did not influence whether or not offspring explored their surroundings. However, when conspecific density was high, more offspring delayed dispersal and those that did settle in high-density enclosures had reduced survival. These patterns appear to be due to increased dispersal costs imposed by conspecific aggression; offspring that explored high-density enclosures had reduced body condition and a greater risk of mortality. We discuss these results in the context of the evolutionary origins of family living.
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- Halliwell, Ben, et al.
(author)
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Live bearing promotes the evolution of sociality in reptiles
- 2017
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 8:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Identifying factors responsible for the emergence and evolution of social complexity is an outstanding challenge in evolutionary biology. Here we report results from a phylogenetic comparative analysis of over 1000 species of squamate reptile, nearly 100 of which exhibit facultative forms of group living, including prolonged parent–offspring associations. We show that the evolution of social groupings among adults and juveniles is overwhelmingly preceded by the evolution of live birth across multiple independent origins of both traits. Furthermore, the results suggest that live bearing has facilitated the emergence of social groups that remain stable across years, similar to forms of sociality observed in other vertebrates. These results suggest that live bearing has been a fundamentally important precursor in the evolutionary origins of group living in the squamates.
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- While, Geoffrey M, et al.
(author)
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Adaptive responses to cool climate promotes persistence of a non-native lizard.
- 2015
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In: Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences. - : The Royal Society. - 1471-2954. ; 282:1803
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Successful establishment and range expansion of non-native species often require rapid accommodation of novel environments. Here, we use common-garden experiments to demonstrate parallel adaptive evolutionary response to a cool climate in populations of wall lizards (Podarcis muralis) introduced from southern Europe into England. Low soil temperatures in the introduced range delay hatching, which generates directional selection for a shorter incubation period. Non-native lizards from two separate lineages have responded to this selection by retaining their embryos for longer before oviposition-hence reducing the time needed to complete embryogenesis in the nest-and by an increased developmental rate at low temperatures. This divergence mirrors local adaptation across latitudes and altitudes within widely distributed species and suggests that evolutionary responses to climate can be very rapid. When extrapolated to soil temperatures encountered in nests within the introduced range, embryo retention and faster developmental rate result in one to several weeks earlier emergence compared with the ancestral state. We show that this difference translates into substantial survival benefits for offspring. This should promote short- and long-term persistence of non-native populations, and ultimately enable expansion into areas that would be unattainable with incubation duration representative of the native range.
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