Insects are suitable model organisms for functional morphology research, especially in the context of exaptation, when the same morphological trait represents an advantage in disparate niches. Phylogenetically distant groups of pygmy grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) have various pronotal projections, defining their general appearance, i.e., body shape. However, pronotum shape has never been related to niche occupation in these insects, thus the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between body shape and macrohabitat adaptation in Scelimeninae, a group of Asian and Papuan tetrigids encompassing amphibious and corticolous (bark-dwelling) representatives. With the use of geometric morphometrics and phylogenetic comparative methods, two morphological and functional groups were distinguished, with the body shape exhibiting a significant phylogenetic signal. The first group consists of elongated amphibious taxa (Scelimenini tribe) with highly uniform pronotum morphology, likely due to strong selection for streamlined body shape. Stouter corticolous taxa (Discotettigini tribe) exhibit more conspicuous body shape variability, possibly increasing camouflage efficiency in tree bark habitats. Ecological divergence associated with macrohabitat adaptation may thus have been the primary driver of speciation in this insect group, but the evolutionary constraints leading to this divergence are still to be identified.
{"title":"The pronotum shape of scelimenine grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) likely represents an exaptation for heterogeneous niche colonization","authors":"Fran Rebrina, A. Brigić, Niko Kasalo, Josip Skejo","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae027","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Insects are suitable model organisms for functional morphology research, especially in the context of exaptation, when the same morphological trait represents an advantage in disparate niches. Phylogenetically distant groups of pygmy grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) have various pronotal projections, defining their general appearance, i.e., body shape. However, pronotum shape has never been related to niche occupation in these insects, thus the aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between body shape and macrohabitat adaptation in Scelimeninae, a group of Asian and Papuan tetrigids encompassing amphibious and corticolous (bark-dwelling) representatives. With the use of geometric morphometrics and phylogenetic comparative methods, two morphological and functional groups were distinguished, with the body shape exhibiting a significant phylogenetic signal. The first group consists of elongated amphibious taxa (Scelimenini tribe) with highly uniform pronotum morphology, likely due to strong selection for streamlined body shape. Stouter corticolous taxa (Discotettigini tribe) exhibit more conspicuous body shape variability, possibly increasing camouflage efficiency in tree bark habitats. Ecological divergence associated with macrohabitat adaptation may thus have been the primary driver of speciation in this insect group, but the evolutionary constraints leading to this divergence are still to be identified.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141272540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Behavioural flexibility and novel environments: integrating current perspectives for future directions","authors":"Valeria Mazza, V. Šlipogor","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae029","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141272332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yaqian Cui, Jilong Cheng, Zhixin Wen, Anderson Feijó, Lin Xia, Deyan Ge, Emmanuelle Artige, Laurent Granjon, Qisen Yang
How ecological and evolutionary factors affect small mammal diversity in arid regions remains largely unknown. Here, we combined the largest phylogeny and occurrence dataset of Gerbillinae desert rodents to explore the underlying factors shaping present-day distribution patterns. In particular, we analyzed the relative contributions of ecological and evolutionary factors on their species diversity using a variety of models. Additionally, we inferred the ancestral range and possible dispersal scenarios and estimated the diversification rate of Gerbilliane. We found that Gerbillinae likely originated in the Horn of Africa in the Middle Miocene and then dispersed and diversified across arid regions in northern and southern Africa and western and central Asia, forming their current distribution pattern. Multiple ecological and evolutionary factors jointly determine the spatial pattern of Gerbillinae diversity, but evolutionary factors (evolutionary time and speciation rate) and habitat filtering were the most important in explaining the spatial variation in species richness. Our study enhances the understanding of the diversity patterns of small mammals in arid regions and highlights the importance of including evolutionary factors when interpreting the mechanisms underlying large-scale species diversity patterns.
{"title":"Evolutionary factors and habitat filtering affect the pattern of Gerbillinae diversity","authors":"Yaqian Cui, Jilong Cheng, Zhixin Wen, Anderson Feijó, Lin Xia, Deyan Ge, Emmanuelle Artige, Laurent Granjon, Qisen Yang","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 How ecological and evolutionary factors affect small mammal diversity in arid regions remains largely unknown. Here, we combined the largest phylogeny and occurrence dataset of Gerbillinae desert rodents to explore the underlying factors shaping present-day distribution patterns. In particular, we analyzed the relative contributions of ecological and evolutionary factors on their species diversity using a variety of models. Additionally, we inferred the ancestral range and possible dispersal scenarios and estimated the diversification rate of Gerbilliane. We found that Gerbillinae likely originated in the Horn of Africa in the Middle Miocene and then dispersed and diversified across arid regions in northern and southern Africa and western and central Asia, forming their current distribution pattern. Multiple ecological and evolutionary factors jointly determine the spatial pattern of Gerbillinae diversity, but evolutionary factors (evolutionary time and speciation rate) and habitat filtering were the most important in explaining the spatial variation in species richness. Our study enhances the understanding of the diversity patterns of small mammals in arid regions and highlights the importance of including evolutionary factors when interpreting the mechanisms underlying large-scale species diversity patterns.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141099262","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Kelsey M Demeny, E Hance Ellington, Kellie M Kuhn, Marcus A Lashley
Oaks (Quercus spp.) provide an important food source for many wildlife species throughout the fall and winter. Most research evaluating oak masting patterns and the subsequent behavioral responses of wildlife focuses on the annual temporal scale. However, patterns in masting at the seasonal temporal scale may be important for wildlife behavior. We designed a study quantifying seasonal oak masting patterns of three oak species (water oak, Q. nigra; laurel oak, Q. laurifolia; and swamp chestnut oak, Q. michauxii) and linking those patterns to visitation and feeding behavior of three primary consumers (white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus; gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis; and raccoon, Procyon lotor). We used seed traps to monitor the seasonal masting pattern of 205 trees in the fall of 2021 and 2022 and used camera traps concurrently to monitor wildlife behavior associated with a subset of 30 trees. Seasonal masting patterns differed between oak species both within a season and across years, and the timing of mast varied within oak species across years. White-tailed deer tended to visit swamp chestnut oak as the number of acorns increased and consume their acorns. Gray squirrels and raccoons tended to visit laurel oak and consume water oak acorns with gray squirrels being more likely to consume as the number of acorns increased. Our results indicate that evaluating acorn production at multiple temporal scales may be necessary to fully understand oak masting relationships with wildlife. Furthermore, differences in wildlife behavior based on oak species may have important implications for oak regeneration.
{"title":"Intra-annual variation in oak masting affects wildlife feeding behavior","authors":"Kelsey M Demeny, E Hance Ellington, Kellie M Kuhn, Marcus A Lashley","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae026","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Oaks (Quercus spp.) provide an important food source for many wildlife species throughout the fall and winter. Most research evaluating oak masting patterns and the subsequent behavioral responses of wildlife focuses on the annual temporal scale. However, patterns in masting at the seasonal temporal scale may be important for wildlife behavior. We designed a study quantifying seasonal oak masting patterns of three oak species (water oak, Q. nigra; laurel oak, Q. laurifolia; and swamp chestnut oak, Q. michauxii) and linking those patterns to visitation and feeding behavior of three primary consumers (white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus; gray squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis; and raccoon, Procyon lotor). We used seed traps to monitor the seasonal masting pattern of 205 trees in the fall of 2021 and 2022 and used camera traps concurrently to monitor wildlife behavior associated with a subset of 30 trees. Seasonal masting patterns differed between oak species both within a season and across years, and the timing of mast varied within oak species across years. White-tailed deer tended to visit swamp chestnut oak as the number of acorns increased and consume their acorns. Gray squirrels and raccoons tended to visit laurel oak and consume water oak acorns with gray squirrels being more likely to consume as the number of acorns increased. Our results indicate that evaluating acorn production at multiple temporal scales may be necessary to fully understand oak masting relationships with wildlife. Furthermore, differences in wildlife behavior based on oak species may have important implications for oak regeneration.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140967217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As an apex predator in arid steppe, saker falcon plays a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance. Understanding their movement patterns concerning conspecific competition and prey availability is important for their conservation. We aim to understand how movement pattern of breeding saker falcons relates to prey availability. Twelve adult sakers were tracked during the breeding seasons, using satellite transmitters. Throughout the breeding season, sakers exhibited territorial behaviour, with minimal overlap in range use among neighbouring conspecifics. Males occupied larger areas (mean = 2,397 ha, median = 1,221 ha), compared to females (mean = 1,241 ha, median = 554 ha), and it remained consistent throughout breeding season. Female home range size increased notably during late nestling stage and post-fledging dependence periods, indicating release from brooding constraints. Notably, we found a negative relationship between male home range size and prey availability. In high rodent density areas, males occupied smaller areas (mean = 1,135 ha, median = 1,034 ha), contrasting with low rodent density areas (mean = 6,815 ha, median = 6,516 ha). However, no significant relationship was observed between female home range size and prey availability. We also noted instances of nest abandonment and early dispersal behaviour in some females, potentially influenced by a handicapping effect of tagging. Our findings offer valuable insight into how prey availability shapes saker falcon space use and defines their spatial requirements for successful breeding. This knowledge is crucial for the conservation and management of globally endangered saker falcons, informing targeted habitat protection and resource management strategies.
{"title":"Influence of prey availability on the movement pattern of breeding saker falcons (Falco cherrug) in Mongolia","authors":"Batbayar Bold, Md Lutfor Rahman, Gankhuyag Purev-Ochir, Amarsaikhan Saruul, Xiangjiang Zhan, Andrew Dixon","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae024","url":null,"abstract":"As an apex predator in arid steppe, saker falcon plays a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem balance. Understanding their movement patterns concerning conspecific competition and prey availability is important for their conservation. We aim to understand how movement pattern of breeding saker falcons relates to prey availability. Twelve adult sakers were tracked during the breeding seasons, using satellite transmitters. Throughout the breeding season, sakers exhibited territorial behaviour, with minimal overlap in range use among neighbouring conspecifics. Males occupied larger areas (mean = 2,397 ha, median = 1,221 ha), compared to females (mean = 1,241 ha, median = 554 ha), and it remained consistent throughout breeding season. Female home range size increased notably during late nestling stage and post-fledging dependence periods, indicating release from brooding constraints. Notably, we found a negative relationship between male home range size and prey availability. In high rodent density areas, males occupied smaller areas (mean = 1,135 ha, median = 1,034 ha), contrasting with low rodent density areas (mean = 6,815 ha, median = 6,516 ha). However, no significant relationship was observed between female home range size and prey availability. We also noted instances of nest abandonment and early dispersal behaviour in some females, potentially influenced by a handicapping effect of tagging. Our findings offer valuable insight into how prey availability shapes saker falcon space use and defines their spatial requirements for successful breeding. This knowledge is crucial for the conservation and management of globally endangered saker falcons, informing targeted habitat protection and resource management strategies.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140927588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Martina Lazzaroni, Rudy Brogi, Valentina Napolitano, Marco Apollonio, Friederike Range, Sarah Marshall-Pescini
Human presence and activities have profoundly altered animals' habitats, exposing them to greater risks but also providing new opportunities and resources. The animals’ capacity to effectively navigate and strike a balance between risks and benefits is crucial for their survival in the Anthropocene era. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), adept urban dwellers, exhibit behavioral plasticity in human-altered environments. We investigated variations in detection frequency on trail cameras and the behavioral responses (explorative, bold and fearful) of wild red foxes living along an urbanization gradient when exposed to a metal bin initially presented clean and then filled with anthropogenic food. All fox populations displayed an increased interest and similar explorative behavioral responses towards the anthropogenic food source, irrespective of the urbanization gradient. Despite no impact on explorative behaviors, foxes in more urbanized areas initially showed heightened fear towards the empty bin, indicating increased apprehension toward novel objects. However, this fear diminished over time, and in the presence of food, urban foxes displayed slightly reduced fear compared to their less urban counterparts. Our results highlight foxes' potential for adaptability to human landscapes, additionally underscoring the nuanced interplay of fear and explorative behavioral response of populations living along the urbanization gradient.
{"title":"Urbanization does not affect red foxes’ interest in anthropogenic food, but increases their initial cautiousness","authors":"Martina Lazzaroni, Rudy Brogi, Valentina Napolitano, Marco Apollonio, Friederike Range, Sarah Marshall-Pescini","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae023","url":null,"abstract":"Human presence and activities have profoundly altered animals' habitats, exposing them to greater risks but also providing new opportunities and resources. The animals’ capacity to effectively navigate and strike a balance between risks and benefits is crucial for their survival in the Anthropocene era. Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), adept urban dwellers, exhibit behavioral plasticity in human-altered environments. We investigated variations in detection frequency on trail cameras and the behavioral responses (explorative, bold and fearful) of wild red foxes living along an urbanization gradient when exposed to a metal bin initially presented clean and then filled with anthropogenic food. All fox populations displayed an increased interest and similar explorative behavioral responses towards the anthropogenic food source, irrespective of the urbanization gradient. Despite no impact on explorative behaviors, foxes in more urbanized areas initially showed heightened fear towards the empty bin, indicating increased apprehension toward novel objects. However, this fear diminished over time, and in the presence of food, urban foxes displayed slightly reduced fear compared to their less urban counterparts. Our results highlight foxes' potential for adaptability to human landscapes, additionally underscoring the nuanced interplay of fear and explorative behavioral response of populations living along the urbanization gradient.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140927519","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lindsey Ellington, Stephanie Mercier, Alba Motes-Rodrigo, Erica van de Waal, Sofia Forss
Urban environments expose animals to abundant anthropogenic materials and foods that facilitate foraging innovations in species with opportunistic diets and high behavioural flexibility. Neophilia and exploration tendency are believed to be important behavioural traits for animals thriving in urban environments. Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) are one of few primate species that have successfully adapted to urban environments, thus making them an ideal species to study these traits. Using a within-species cross-habitat approach, we compared neophilia and exploration of novel objects (jointly referred to as ‘object curiosity’) between semi-urban, wild, and captive monkeys to shed light on the cognitive traits facilitating urban living. To measure ‘object curiosity’, we exposed monkeys to various types of novel stimuli and compared their approaches and explorative behaviour. Our results revealed differences in the number of approaches and explorative behaviour towards novel stimuli between the habitat types considered. Captive vervet monkeys were significantly more explorative than both semi- urban and wild troops, suggesting that positive experiences with humans and lack of predation, rather than exposure to human materials per se, influence object curiosity. Across habitats, juvenile males were the most explorative age-sex class. This is likely due to males being the dispersing sex and juveniles being more motivated to learn about their environment. Additionally, we found that items potentially associated with human food, elicited stronger explorative responses in semi-urban monkeys than non-food related objects, suggesting that their motivation to explore might be driven by “anthrophilia” i.e., their experience of rewarding foraging on similar anthropogenic food sources. We conclude that varying levels of exposure to humans, predation and pre-exposure to human food packaging explain variation in ‘object curiosity’ in our sample of vervet monkeys.
{"title":"Urbanization does not increase ‘object curiosity’ in vervet monkeys, but semi-urban individuals selectively explore food related anthropogenic items","authors":"Lindsey Ellington, Stephanie Mercier, Alba Motes-Rodrigo, Erica van de Waal, Sofia Forss","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae022","url":null,"abstract":"Urban environments expose animals to abundant anthropogenic materials and foods that facilitate foraging innovations in species with opportunistic diets and high behavioural flexibility. Neophilia and exploration tendency are believed to be important behavioural traits for animals thriving in urban environments. Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) are one of few primate species that have successfully adapted to urban environments, thus making them an ideal species to study these traits. Using a within-species cross-habitat approach, we compared neophilia and exploration of novel objects (jointly referred to as ‘object curiosity’) between semi-urban, wild, and captive monkeys to shed light on the cognitive traits facilitating urban living. To measure ‘object curiosity’, we exposed monkeys to various types of novel stimuli and compared their approaches and explorative behaviour. Our results revealed differences in the number of approaches and explorative behaviour towards novel stimuli between the habitat types considered. Captive vervet monkeys were significantly more explorative than both semi- urban and wild troops, suggesting that positive experiences with humans and lack of predation, rather than exposure to human materials per se, influence object curiosity. Across habitats, juvenile males were the most explorative age-sex class. This is likely due to males being the dispersing sex and juveniles being more motivated to learn about their environment. Additionally, we found that items potentially associated with human food, elicited stronger explorative responses in semi-urban monkeys than non-food related objects, suggesting that their motivation to explore might be driven by “anthrophilia” i.e., their experience of rewarding foraging on similar anthropogenic food sources. We conclude that varying levels of exposure to humans, predation and pre-exposure to human food packaging explain variation in ‘object curiosity’ in our sample of vervet monkeys.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140841492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pablo D Ribeiro, Nahuel E Farías, Emiliano H Ocampo, Jesús D Nuñez, Tomás A Luppi
Male fiddler crabs own an enlarged claw which is a weapon and an ornament. The enlargement of this claw begins from the juvenile stage and continues throughout life. Males may voluntarily lose (i.e. autotomise) this claw. After several moults males may regenerate a new claw, called leptochelous, which acquires a similar length but a lower muscle mass area than the original one, called brachychelous. In some species, regenerated claws develop permanently as leptochelous, the population having two discrete claw morphologies. Other species present morphological variations with leptochelous and brachychelous being two ends of a continuum. In the species Leptuca uruguayensis, we studied the morphological variation of this enlarged claw, whether it may be caused by its regeneration at different male sizes, and its consequences on mating success. We found that claws could not be discriminated as discrete morphs, suggesting a morphological continuum from brachychelous to leptochelous. Regenerated claws in the laboratory were initially small and proportional to body size, while a field experiment confirmed that claw size is recovered after several moults. Morphological variation may be caused by energetic limitations where males of different sizes must differently trade-off between restitution of claw length (ornament function) or claw muscle area (weapon function). Fiddler crabs use two mating tactics with different levels of female choice. However, regardless of the mating tactic, leptochelous males were at a disadvantage at high densities, while not at low densities, suggesting that the consequences of autotomy and regeneration on mating success may depend on the social context.
{"title":"The influence of the post-autotomy regeneration of a sexual trait and mating tactics in a fiddler crab","authors":"Pablo D Ribeiro, Nahuel E Farías, Emiliano H Ocampo, Jesús D Nuñez, Tomás A Luppi","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae019","url":null,"abstract":"Male fiddler crabs own an enlarged claw which is a weapon and an ornament. The enlargement of this claw begins from the juvenile stage and continues throughout life. Males may voluntarily lose (i.e. autotomise) this claw. After several moults males may regenerate a new claw, called leptochelous, which acquires a similar length but a lower muscle mass area than the original one, called brachychelous. In some species, regenerated claws develop permanently as leptochelous, the population having two discrete claw morphologies. Other species present morphological variations with leptochelous and brachychelous being two ends of a continuum. In the species Leptuca uruguayensis, we studied the morphological variation of this enlarged claw, whether it may be caused by its regeneration at different male sizes, and its consequences on mating success. We found that claws could not be discriminated as discrete morphs, suggesting a morphological continuum from brachychelous to leptochelous. Regenerated claws in the laboratory were initially small and proportional to body size, while a field experiment confirmed that claw size is recovered after several moults. Morphological variation may be caused by energetic limitations where males of different sizes must differently trade-off between restitution of claw length (ornament function) or claw muscle area (weapon function). Fiddler crabs use two mating tactics with different levels of female choice. However, regardless of the mating tactic, leptochelous males were at a disadvantage at high densities, while not at low densities, suggesting that the consequences of autotomy and regeneration on mating success may depend on the social context.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140798859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daniel T Blumstein, Natalie Vu, Megan Edic, Linh Vo, Julien G A Martin
The nonlinearity and fear hypothesis predicts that highly aroused vocal mammals and birds produce vocalizations (notably alarm calls and screams) which contain a variety of non-linear phenomena (NLP). Such vocalizations often sound ‘noisy’ because vocal production systems are over-blown when animals are highly aroused. While much is known about the conditions under which animals produce vocalizations containing NLP, and how species respond to them, there is little research about the heritability of such behavioral traits. Using the quantitative genetic animal model, we estimated the genetic basis of ‘noise’ in alarm calls produced by females and found significant heritability in call entropy—our measure of the noisiness. About 9% of variance in noisiness can be accounted for by genetic differences. Taken together, these findings suggest that the degree to which marmots produce noisy calls is modestly heritable and can be thus subject to further evolution via natural selection.
{"title":"The sound of fear is heritable","authors":"Daniel T Blumstein, Natalie Vu, Megan Edic, Linh Vo, Julien G A Martin","doi":"10.1093/cz/zoae021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/cz/zoae021","url":null,"abstract":"The nonlinearity and fear hypothesis predicts that highly aroused vocal mammals and birds produce vocalizations (notably alarm calls and screams) which contain a variety of non-linear phenomena (NLP). Such vocalizations often sound ‘noisy’ because vocal production systems are over-blown when animals are highly aroused. While much is known about the conditions under which animals produce vocalizations containing NLP, and how species respond to them, there is little research about the heritability of such behavioral traits. Using the quantitative genetic animal model, we estimated the genetic basis of ‘noise’ in alarm calls produced by females and found significant heritability in call entropy—our measure of the noisiness. About 9% of variance in noisiness can be accounted for by genetic differences. Taken together, these findings suggest that the degree to which marmots produce noisy calls is modestly heritable and can be thus subject to further evolution via natural selection.","PeriodicalId":50599,"journal":{"name":"Current Zoology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-04-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140799159","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pengzhen Huang, J. Teichroeb, Endi Zhang, Min Chen
Same-sex mounts provide male juvenile golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) with opportunities to practice heterosexual copulatory skills and are often followed by grooming (post-mounting grooming, PMG). We hypothesized that juveniles acted as the mountee and provided mounting opportunities to receive grooming from their peer mounter. Here, we observed same-sex mounts among male juveniles (N = 5) in a captive group of R. roxellana in Shanghai Wild Animal Park, China from November 2014 to June 2015. Among 1,044 mounts recorded, 45.40% were accompanied by PMG initiated by the mounter, and only 3.74% were followed by PMG initiated by the mountee. Mountees were more likely to receive PMG when they performed a mounting solicitation than when they did not, or when they were mounted longer (even if they did not solicit). Over a long timeframe (one month), mountee’s tended to choose partners who groomed them more often than others after mounting, regardless of how long the grooming was. However, whether the mounter groomed the mountee did not predict the mounting direction in their subsequent mount. Our results suggest that in the context of same-sex mounts, juveniles provide mounting opportunities to receive grooming from peers on a long-term, rather than on a short-term basis. This study provides the first evidence that juveniles’ same-sex mounting strategy may be associated with the grooming market in non-human primates, which necessitates further investigation with large free-ranging groups due to the limited sample size of individuals and the captive setting of the current study.
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