Sex, long life and the evolutionary transition to cooperative breeding in birds.
(2015) In Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences 282(1816).- Abstract
- Long life is a typical feature of individuals living in cooperative societies. One explanation is that group living lowers mortality, which selects for longer life. Alternatively, long life may make the evolution of cooperation more likely by ensuring a long breeding tenure, making helping behaviour and queuing for breeding positions worthwhile. The benefit of queuing will, however, depend on whether individuals gain indirect fitness benefits while helping, which is determined by female promiscuity. Where promiscuity is high and therefore the indirect fitness benefits of helping are low, cooperation can still be favoured by an even longer life span. We present the results of comparative analyses designed to test the likelihood of a causal... (More)
- Long life is a typical feature of individuals living in cooperative societies. One explanation is that group living lowers mortality, which selects for longer life. Alternatively, long life may make the evolution of cooperation more likely by ensuring a long breeding tenure, making helping behaviour and queuing for breeding positions worthwhile. The benefit of queuing will, however, depend on whether individuals gain indirect fitness benefits while helping, which is determined by female promiscuity. Where promiscuity is high and therefore the indirect fitness benefits of helping are low, cooperation can still be favoured by an even longer life span. We present the results of comparative analyses designed to test the likelihood of a causal relationship between longevity and cooperative breeding by reconstructing ancestral states of cooperative breeding across birds, and by examining the effect of female promiscuity on the relationship between these two traits. We found that long life makes the evolution of cooperation more likely and that promiscuous cooperative species are exceptionally long lived. These results make sense of promiscuity in cooperative breeders and clarify the importance of life-history traits in the evolution of cooperative breeding, illustrating that cooperation can evolve via the combination of indirect and direct fitness benefits. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/8035083
- author
- Downing, Philip LU ; Cornwallis, Charlie LU and Griffin, Ashleigh S
- organization
- publishing date
- 2015
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences
- volume
- 282
- issue
- 1816
- article number
- 20151663
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:26400743
- wos:000363484700012
- scopus:84942251185
- pmid:26400743
- ISSN
- 1471-2954
- DOI
- 10.1098/rspb.2015.1663
- project
- Social Evolution
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 41ce51ba-1526-4554-8dd2-0211cb0ae775 (old id 8035083)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:47:55
- date last changed
- 2024-04-07 18:30:39
@article{41ce51ba-1526-4554-8dd2-0211cb0ae775,
abstract = {{Long life is a typical feature of individuals living in cooperative societies. One explanation is that group living lowers mortality, which selects for longer life. Alternatively, long life may make the evolution of cooperation more likely by ensuring a long breeding tenure, making helping behaviour and queuing for breeding positions worthwhile. The benefit of queuing will, however, depend on whether individuals gain indirect fitness benefits while helping, which is determined by female promiscuity. Where promiscuity is high and therefore the indirect fitness benefits of helping are low, cooperation can still be favoured by an even longer life span. We present the results of comparative analyses designed to test the likelihood of a causal relationship between longevity and cooperative breeding by reconstructing ancestral states of cooperative breeding across birds, and by examining the effect of female promiscuity on the relationship between these two traits. We found that long life makes the evolution of cooperation more likely and that promiscuous cooperative species are exceptionally long lived. These results make sense of promiscuity in cooperative breeders and clarify the importance of life-history traits in the evolution of cooperative breeding, illustrating that cooperation can evolve via the combination of indirect and direct fitness benefits.}},
author = {{Downing, Philip and Cornwallis, Charlie and Griffin, Ashleigh S}},
issn = {{1471-2954}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1816}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Royal Society of London. Proceedings B. Biological Sciences}},
title = {{Sex, long life and the evolutionary transition to cooperative breeding in birds.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1663}},
doi = {{10.1098/rspb.2015.1663}},
volume = {{282}},
year = {{2015}},
}