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Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards

The evolution of sociality and traits that correlate with, or predict, sociality, have been the focus of considerable recent study. In order to reduce the social conflict that ultimately comes with group living, and foster social tolerance, individuals need reliable information about group members a...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Baeckens, Simon, Whiting, Martin J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7935108/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33593182
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2438
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author Baeckens, Simon
Whiting, Martin J.
author_facet Baeckens, Simon
Whiting, Martin J.
author_sort Baeckens, Simon
collection PubMed
description The evolution of sociality and traits that correlate with, or predict, sociality, have been the focus of considerable recent study. In order to reduce the social conflict that ultimately comes with group living, and foster social tolerance, individuals need reliable information about group members and potential rivals. Chemical signals are one such source of information and are widely used in many animal taxa, including lizards. Here, we take a phylogenetic comparative approach to test the hypothesis that social grouping correlates with investment in chemical signalling. We used the presence of epidermal glands as a proxy of chemical investment and considered social grouping as the occurrence of social groups containing both adults and juveniles. Based on a dataset of 911 lizard species, our models strongly supported correlated evolution between social grouping and chemical signalling glands. The rate of transition towards social grouping from a background of ‘epidermal glands present’ was an order of a magnitude higher than from a background of ‘no epidermal glands’. Our results highlight the potential importance of chemical signalling during the evolution of sociality and the need for more focused studies on the role of chemical communication in facilitating information transfer about individual and group identity, and ameliorating social conflict.
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spelling pubmed-79351082021-09-06 Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards Baeckens, Simon Whiting, Martin J. Proc Biol Sci Evolution The evolution of sociality and traits that correlate with, or predict, sociality, have been the focus of considerable recent study. In order to reduce the social conflict that ultimately comes with group living, and foster social tolerance, individuals need reliable information about group members and potential rivals. Chemical signals are one such source of information and are widely used in many animal taxa, including lizards. Here, we take a phylogenetic comparative approach to test the hypothesis that social grouping correlates with investment in chemical signalling. We used the presence of epidermal glands as a proxy of chemical investment and considered social grouping as the occurrence of social groups containing both adults and juveniles. Based on a dataset of 911 lizard species, our models strongly supported correlated evolution between social grouping and chemical signalling glands. The rate of transition towards social grouping from a background of ‘epidermal glands present’ was an order of a magnitude higher than from a background of ‘no epidermal glands’. Our results highlight the potential importance of chemical signalling during the evolution of sociality and the need for more focused studies on the role of chemical communication in facilitating information transfer about individual and group identity, and ameliorating social conflict. The Royal Society 2021-02-24 2021-02-17 /pmc/articles/PMC7935108/ /pubmed/33593182 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2438 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Evolution
Baeckens, Simon
Whiting, Martin J.
Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards
title Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards
title_full Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards
title_fullStr Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards
title_full_unstemmed Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards
title_short Investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards
title_sort investment in chemical signalling glands facilitates the evolution of sociality in lizards
topic Evolution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7935108/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33593182
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2438
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