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.

Divergence in sex peptide-mediated female post-mating responses in Drosophila melanogaster
Transfer and receipt of seminal fluid proteins crucially affect reproductive processes in animals. Evolution in these male ejaculatory proteins is explained with post-mating sexual selection, but we lack a good understanding of the evolution of female post-mating responses (PMRs) to these proteins. Some of these proteins are expected to mediate sexually antagonistic coevolution generating the expectation that females evolve resistance. One candidate in Drosophila melanogaster is the sex peptide (SP) which confers cost of mating in females. In this paper, we compared female SP-induced PMRs across three D. melanogaster wild-...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Wensing, K. U., Fricke, C. Tags: behaviour, evolution Source Type: research

Bonobos voluntarily hand food to others but not toys or tools
A key feature of human prosociality is direct transfers, the most active form of sharing in which donors voluntarily hand over resources in their possession. Direct transfers buffer hunter-gatherers against foraging shortfalls. The emergence and elaboration of this behaviour thus likely played a key role in human evolution by promoting cooperative interdependence and ensuring that humans' growing energetic needs (e.g. for increasing brain size) were more reliably met. According to the strong prosociality hypothesis, among great apes only humans exhibit sufficiently strong prosocial motivations to directly transfer food. Th...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Krupenye, C., Tan, J., Hare, B. Tags: behaviour, cognition, evolution Source Type: research

The scent of attractiveness: levels of reproductive hormones explain individual differences in women's body odour
Individuals are thought to have their own distinctive body odour which reportedly plays an important role in mate choice. In the present study we investigated individual differences in body odours of women and examined whether some women generally smell more attractive than others or whether odour preferences are a matter of individual taste. We then explored whether levels of reproductive hormones explain women's body odour attractiveness, to test the idea that body odour attractiveness may act as a chemosensory marker of reproductive fitness. Fifty-seven men rated body odours of 28 healthy, naturally cycling women of rep...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Lobmaier, J. S., Fischbacher, U., Wirthmüller, U., Knoch, D. Tags: behaviour, evolution Source Type: research

Maternal reproductive senescence shapes the fitness consequences of the parental age difference in ruffed lemurs
In this study, we analyse the fitness consequences of both parental age and parental age differences on litter size and offspring survival in two closely related species of lemurs living in captivity. As captive lemurs do not choose their reproductive partner, we were able to measure litter size and offspring survival across breeding pairs showing a wide range of parental age differences. However, we demonstrated that the effect of the parental age difference on litter size was fully accounted for by female reproductive senescence because females mating with much younger males were old females. On the other hand, both pare...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Tidiere, M., Thevenot, X., Deligiannopoulou, A., Douay, G., Whipple, M., Siberchicot, A., Gaillard, J.-M., Lemaitre, J.-F. Tags: ecology, evolution Source Type: research

How does parental environment influence the potential for adaptation to global change?
Parental environments are regularly shown to alter the mean fitness of offspring, but their impacts on the genetic variation for fitness, which predicts adaptive capacity and is also measured on offspring, are unclear. Consequently, how parental environments mediate adaptation to environmental stressors, like those accompanying global change, is largely unknown. Here, using an ecologically important marine tubeworm in a quantitative-genetic breeding design, we tested how parental exposure to projected ocean warming alters the mean survival, and genetic variation for survival, of offspring during their most vulnerable life ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Chirgwin, E., Marshall, D. J., Sgro, C. M., Monro, K. Tags: genetics, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Parent-offspring facial resemblance increases with age in rhesus macaques
Kin recognition is a key ability which facilitates the acquisition of inclusive fitness benefits and enables optimal outbreeding. In primates, phenotype matching is considered particularly important for the recognition of patrilineal relatives, as information on paternity is unlikely to be available via social familiarity. Phenotypic cues to both paternal and maternal relatedness exist in the facial features of humans and other primates. However, theoretical models suggest that in systems with uncertainty parentage it may be adaptive for offspring to conceal such cues when young, in order to avoid potential costs of being ...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Kazem, A. J. N., Barth, Y., Pfefferle, D., Kulik, L., Widdig, A. Tags: behaviour, evolution Source Type: research

Stratigraphic signatures of mass extinctions: ecological and sedimentary determinants
Stratigraphic patterns of last occurrences (LOs) of fossil taxa potentially fingerprint mass extinctions and delineate rates and geometries of those events. Although empirical studies of mass extinctions recognize that random sampling causes LOs to occur earlier than the time of extinction (Signor–Lipps effect), sequence stratigraphic controls on the position of LOs are rarely considered. By tracing stratigraphic ranges of extant mollusc species preserved in the Holocene succession of the Po coastal plain (Italy), we demonstrated that, if mass extinction took place today, complex but entirely false extinction pattern...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Nawrot, R., Scarponi, D., Azzarone, M., Dexter, T. A., Kusnerik, K. M., Wittmer, J. M., Amorosi, A., Kowalewski, M. Tags: palaeontology, ecology, evolution Palaeobiology Source Type: research

Ecological specialization is associated with genetic structure in the ant-associated butterfly family Lycaenidae
The role of specialization in diversification can be explored along two geological axes in the butterfly family Lycaenidae. In addition to variation in host-plant specialization normally exhibited by butterflies, the caterpillars of most Lycaenidae have symbioses with ants ranging from no interactions through to obligate and specific associations, increasing niche dimensionality in ant-associated taxa. Based on mitochondrial sequences from 8282 specimens from 967 species and 249 genera, we show that the degree of ecological specialization of lycaenid species is positively correlated with genetic divergence, haplotype diver...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Schär, S., Eastwood, R., Arnaldi, K. G., Talavera, G., Kaliszewska, Z. A., Boyle, J. H., Espeland, M., Nash, D. R., Vila, R., Pierce, N. E. Tags: genetics, ecology, evolution Source Type: research

Nonlinear averaging of thermal experience predicts population growth rates in a thermally variable environment
As thermal regimes change worldwide, projections of future population and species persistence often require estimates of how population growth rates depend on temperature. These projections rarely account for how temporal variation in temperature can systematically modify growth rates relative to projections based on constant temperatures. Here, we tested the hypothesis that time-averaged population growth rates in fluctuating thermal environments differ from growth rates in constant conditions as a consequence of Jensen's inequality, and that the thermal performance curves (TPCs) describing population growth in fluctuatin...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Bernhardt, J. R., Sunday, J. M., Thompson, P. L., O'Connor, M. I. Tags: ecology Source Type: research

Local root growth and death are mediated by contrasts in nutrient availability and root quantity between soil patches
In this study, we further explored, beside nutrient contrast, whether root growth and death in a local patch are also affected by relative root quantity in the patch. We conducted a split-root experiment with different splitting ratios of roots of Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) individuals, as well as high- (5x Hoagland solution versus water) or low- (1x Hoagland solution versus water) contrast nutrient conditions for the split roots. The results showed that root growth decreased in nutrient-rich patches but increased in nutrient-poor patches when more roots co-occurred in the same patches, irrespective of nutrient...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 12, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Wang, P., Yang, Y., Mou, P., Zhao, Q., Li, Y. Tags: ecology Source Type: research

Correction to 'The onset of ecological diversification 50 years after colonization of a crater lake by haplochromine cichlid fishes
(Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 5, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Moser, F. N., van Rijssel, J. C., Mwaiko, S., Meier, J. I., Ngatunga, B., Seehausen, O. Tags: evolution Corrections Source Type: research

Correction to 'Adaptive evolution of distinct prey-specific toxin genes in rear-fanged snake venom
(Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 5, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Modahl, C. M., Mrinalini, F. S., Mackessy, S. P. Tags: molecular biology, biochemistry, evolution Corrections Source Type: research

Wear, tear and systematic repair: testing models of growth dynamics in conodonts with high-resolution imaging
Conodont elements are the earliest mineralized vertebrate dental tools and the only ones capable of extensive repair. Two models of conodont growth, as well as the presence of a larval stage, have been hypothesized. We analysed normally and pathologically developed elements to test these hypotheses and identified three ontogenetic stages characterized by different anisometric growth and morphology. The distinction of these stages is independently corroborated by differences in tissue strontium (Sr) content. The onset of the last stage is marked by the appearance of wear resulting from mechanical food digestion. At least fi...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 5, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Shirley, B., Grohganz, M., Bestmann, M., Jarochowska, E. Tags: palaeontology, structural biology Palaeobiology Source Type: research

The benefit of being still: energy savings during winter dormancy in fish come from inactivity and the cold, not from metabolic rate depression
Winter dormancy is used by many animals to survive the cold and food-poor high-latitude winter. Metabolic rate depression, an active downregulation of resting cellular energy turnover and thus standard (resting) metabolic rate (SMR), is a unifying strategy underlying the persistence of organisms in such energy-limited environments, including hibernating endotherms. However, controversy exists about its involvement in winter-dormant aquatic ectotherms. To address this debate, we conducted simultaneous, multi-day measurements of whole-animal oxygen consumption rate (a proxy of metabolic rate) and spontaneous movement in a mo...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 5, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Speers-Roesch, B., Norin, T., Driedzic, W. R. Tags: behaviour, physiology, ecology Development and physiology Source Type: research

Seagrass digestion by a notorious 'carnivore
What an animal consumes and what an animal digests and assimilates for energetic demands are not always synonymous. Sharks, uniformly accepted as carnivores, have guts that are presumed to be well suited for a high-protein diet. However, the bonnethead shark (Sphyrna tiburo), which is abundant in critical seagrass habitats, has been previously shown to consume copious amounts of seagrass (up to 62.1% of gut content mass), although it is unknown if they can digest and assimilate seagrass nutrients. To determine if bonnetheads digest seagrass nutrients, captive sharks were fed a 13C-labelled seagrass diet. Digestibility anal...
Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences - September 5, 2018 Category: Biology Authors: Leigh, S. C., Papastamatiou, Y. P., German, D. P. Tags: physiology, ecology Source Type: research