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Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks

The social network structure of animal populations has major implications for survival, reproductive success, sexual selection and pathogen transmission of individuals. But as of yet, no general theory of social network structure exists that can explain the diversity of social networks observed in n...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ilany, Amiyaal, Akçay, Erol
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4931239/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27352101
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12084
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author Ilany, Amiyaal
Akçay, Erol
author_facet Ilany, Amiyaal
Akçay, Erol
author_sort Ilany, Amiyaal
collection PubMed
description The social network structure of animal populations has major implications for survival, reproductive success, sexual selection and pathogen transmission of individuals. But as of yet, no general theory of social network structure exists that can explain the diversity of social networks observed in nature, and serve as a null model for detecting species and population-specific factors. Here we propose a simple and generally applicable model of social network structure. We consider the emergence of network structure as a result of social inheritance, in which newborns are likely to bond with maternal contacts, and via forming bonds randomly. We compare model output with data from several species, showing that it can generate networks with properties such as those observed in real social systems. Our model demonstrates that important observed properties of social networks, including heritability of network position or assortative associations, can be understood as consequences of social inheritance.
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spelling pubmed-49312392016-07-12 Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks Ilany, Amiyaal Akçay, Erol Nat Commun Article The social network structure of animal populations has major implications for survival, reproductive success, sexual selection and pathogen transmission of individuals. But as of yet, no general theory of social network structure exists that can explain the diversity of social networks observed in nature, and serve as a null model for detecting species and population-specific factors. Here we propose a simple and generally applicable model of social network structure. We consider the emergence of network structure as a result of social inheritance, in which newborns are likely to bond with maternal contacts, and via forming bonds randomly. We compare model output with data from several species, showing that it can generate networks with properties such as those observed in real social systems. Our model demonstrates that important observed properties of social networks, including heritability of network position or assortative associations, can be understood as consequences of social inheritance. Nature Publishing Group 2016-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC4931239/ /pubmed/27352101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12084 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Ilany, Amiyaal
Akçay, Erol
Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
title Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
title_full Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
title_fullStr Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
title_full_unstemmed Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
title_short Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
title_sort social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4931239/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27352101
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12084
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