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Article
| Open AccessPhylogenomic analysis sheds light on the evolutionary pathways towards acoustic communication in Orthoptera
Song et al. inferred that stridulatory wings and tibial ears co-evolved in a sexual context among crickets, katydids, and their allies, while abdominal ears evolved first in a non-sexual context in grasshoppers, and were later co-opted for courtship. They found little evidence that the evolution of these organs increased lineage diversification.
- Hojun Song
- , Olivier Béthoux
- & Sabrina Simon
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Article
| Open AccessEvolution of communication signals and information during species radiation
Animal signals often encode information on the emitter’s species identity. Using woodpecker drumming as a model, here the authors show that limited signal divergence during a clade radiation does not impair species discrimination, as long as the signals are adapted to local ecological requirements.
- Maxime Garcia
- , Frédéric Theunissen
- & Nicolas Mathevon
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Article
| Open AccessEnvironmental variability supports chimpanzee behavioural diversity
Environmental variability is one potential driver of behavioural and cultural diversity in humans and other animals. Here, the authors show that chimpanzee behavioural diversity is higher in habitats that are more seasonal and historically unstable, and in savannah woodland relative to forested sites.
- Ammie K. Kalan
- , Lars Kulik
- & Hjalmar S. Kühl
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Article
| Open AccessInformation can explain the dynamics of group order in animal collective behaviour
In animal groups, the degree of alignment of individuals could have different benefits and costs for individuals depending on their reliance on private or social information. Here the authors show that in shoals of three-spined sticklebacks, some individuals reach resources faster when groups are disordered, a state which favours reliance on privately acquired information, while other individuals reach resources faster when groups are ordered, allowing them to exploit social information more effectively.
- Hannah E. A. MacGregor
- , James E. Herbert-Read
- & Christos C. Ioannou
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Article
| Open AccessKea show three signatures of domain-general statistical inference
Previously only humans and the great apes have been shown to use probabilities to make predictions about uncertain events, and integrate social and physical information into their predictions. Here, the authors demonstrate these capacities in a parrot species, the kea.
- Amalia P. M. Bastos
- & Alex H. Taylor
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Article
| Open AccessJuvenile cleaner fish can socially learn the consequences of cheating
Cleaner fish can cheat clients for higher rewards but this comes with a risk of punishment. Here, Truskanov et al. show that juvenile cleaner fish can learn by observing adults to behave more cooperatively themselves but also to prefer clients that are more tolerant to cheating.
- Noa Truskanov
- , Yasmin Emery
- & Redouan Bshary
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Article
| Open AccessNetwork-based diffusion analysis reveals context-specific dominance of dance communication in foraging honeybees
Honeybees have a sophisticated system to communicate foraging locations through a “dance”, but they also share food-related olfactory cues. Here, Hasenjager and colleagues use social network analysis to disentangle how foraging information is transmitted through these systems in different contexts.
- Matthew J. Hasenjager
- , William Hoppitt
- & Ellouise Leadbeater
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Article
| Open AccessPhysical and behavioral adaptations to prevent overheating of the living wings of butterflies
Butterfly wings have low thermal capacity and thus are vulnerable to damage by overheating. Here, Tsai et al. take an interdisciplinary approach to reveal the organs, nanostructures and behaviors that enable butterflies to sense and regulate their wing temperature.
- Cheng-Chia Tsai
- , Richard A. Childers
- & Nanfang Yu
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Article
| Open AccessNuthatches vary their alarm calls based upon the source of the eavesdropped signals
Animals can obtain information on predation risk directly from observing predators or indirectly from the alarm calls of others. Here, the authors show that red-breasted nuthatches encode information on risk in their own alarm calls differently depending on the source of the information.
- Nora V Carlson
- , Erick Greene
- & Christopher N Templeton
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Article
| Open AccessThe origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates
Acoustic communication is widespread, but not universal, across terrestrial vertebrates. Here, the authors show that acoustic communication evolved anciently, but independently, in most tetrapod groups and that these origins were associated with nocturnal activity.
- Zhuo Chen
- & John J. Wiens
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Article
| Open AccessBirds repurpose the role of drag and lift to take off and land
Recent work has suggested that lift and drag may be employed differently in slow, flapping flight compared to classic flight aerodynamics. Here the authors develop a method to measure vertical and horizontal aerodynamic forces simultaneously and use it to quantify lift and drag during slow flight.
- Diana D. Chin
- & David Lentink
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Article
| Open AccessThe evolution of parental care diversity in amphibians
Parental care can take many forms but how this diversity arises is not well understood. Here, the authors compile data for over 1300 amphibian species and show that different forms of care evolve at different rates, prolonged care can be easily reduced, and biparental care is evolutionarily unstable.
- Andrew I. Furness
- & Isabella Capellini
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Article
| Open AccessEvolution of acoustic communication in blind cavefish
The fish Astyanax mexicanus has divergent cave and river-dwelling eco-morphotypes. Here, Hyacinthe et al. show that cave and river fish communicate sonically, but that the sounds produced and the responses elicited in the two morphs depend differently on the social and behavioral context.
- Carole Hyacinthe
- , Joël Attia
- & Sylvie Rétaux
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Article
| Open AccessBacteria evoke alarm behaviour in zebrafish
When injured, fish release an alarm substance produced by club cells in the skin that elicits fear in members of their shoal. Here, the authors show that mucus and bacteria are transported from the external surface into club cells, and bacterial components elicit alarm behaviour, acting in concert with a substance from fish.
- Joanne Shu Ming Chia
- , Elena S. Wall
- & Suresh Jesuthasan
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Article
| Open AccessLong-term and persistent vocal plasticity in adult bats
Bats are long-lived animals that can produce a complex vocabulary of social communication calls. Here, the authors show that even in adulthood, bats retain the ability to adaptively introduce long-term modifications to their vocalizations, showing persistent vocal plasticity.
- Daria Genzel
- , Janki Desai
- & Michael M. Yartsev
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Article
| Open AccessIrrational behavior in C. elegans arises from asymmetric modulatory effects within single sensory neurons
C. elegans worms exhibit an innate preference for various stimuli. Here the authors test the pairwise behavioral preference between a large set of stimuli and report that the worms’ behavior does not conform to rationality theory due to asymmetric modulatory effects within single sensory neurons.
- Shachar Iwanir
- , Rotem Ruach
- & Alon Zaslaver
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Article
| Open AccessCoevolution of vocal signal characteristics and hearing sensitivity in forest mammals
Sensory drive theory predicts that vocal signalling coevolves with auditory sensitivity, but empirical evidence is limited. Here, Charlton et al. show that vocal characteristics and hearing have coevolved in forest mammals, due to constraints imposed by the local signalling environment.
- Benjamin D. Charlton
- , Megan A. Owen
- & Ronald R. Swaisgood
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Article
| Open AccessDuets recorded in the wild reveal that interindividually coordinated motor control enables cooperative behavior
Recording neural activity during coordinated behaviors in controlled environments limits opportunities for understanding natural interactions. Here, the authors record from freely moving duetting birds in their natural habitats to reveal the neural mechanisms of interindividual motor coordination.
- Susanne Hoffmann
- , Lisa Trost
- & Manfred Gahr
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Article
| Open AccessHawks steer attacks using a guidance system tuned for close pursuit of erratically manoeuvring targets
Hunting styles and flight morphologies of aerial predators are adapted to their habitat structure and prey behaviour. Here, the authors reconstruct flight trajectories of Harris’ Hawks Parabuteo unicinctus and find that these follow a mixed guidance law that is not thrown off by erratic manoeuvres of prey.
- Caroline H. Brighton
- & Graham K. Taylor
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Article
| Open AccessBehavioural correlations of the domestication syndrome are decoupled in modern dog breeds
Dog breeds differ in evolutionary age and admixture with wolves, enabling comparison across domestication stages. Here, Hansen Wheat et al. show that correlations among behaviours are decoupled in modern breeds compared to ancient breeds and suggest this reflects a recent shift in selection pressure.
- Christina Hansen Wheat
- , John L. Fitzpatrick
- & Hans Temrin
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Article
| Open AccessThe coevolution of lifespan and reversible plasticity
Reversible phenotypic plasticity is expected to be favoured by long lifespan, as this increases the environmental variation individuals experience. Here, the authors develop a model showing how phenotypic plasticity can drive selection on lifespan, leading to coevolution of these traits.
- Irja I. Ratikainen
- & Hanna Kokko
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Article
| Open AccessSex peptide receptor-regulated polyandry modulates the balance of pre- and post-copulatory sexual selection in Drosophila
Theory predicts that mating systems influence the relative strength of sexual selection before and after mating. Here, Morimoto and colleagues demonstrate that higher polyandry weakens precopulatory while strengthening post-copulatory sexual selection on males in Drosophila melanogaster.
- Juliano Morimoto
- , Grant C. McDonald
- & Stuart Wigby
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Article
| Open AccessSynchronization of speed, sound and iridescent color in a hummingbird aerial courtship dive
Although components of animal mating signals are often studied separately, many animals produce complex multimodal displays. Here, the authors show that the courtship display of male broad-tailed hummingbirds consists of synchronized motions, sounds, and colors that occur within just 300 milliseconds.
- Benedict G. Hogan
- & Mary Caswell Stoddard
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Article
| Open AccessImplicit preference for human trustworthy faces in macaque monkeys
Humans infer the trustworthiness of others based on subtle facial features such as the facial width-to-height ratio, but it is not known whether other primates are sensitive to these cues. Here, the authors show that macaque monkeys prefer to look at human faces which appear trustworthy to humans.
- Manuela Costa
- , Alice Gomez
- & Angela Sirigu
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Article
| Open AccessZebra finches identify individuals using vocal signatures unique to each call type
Individual animals have vocal signatures, but are the same signatures consistent across behavioral contexts? Here, the authors use behavioral experiments and acoustic analyses to show that zebra finches have distinct vocal signatures for different call types, such as aggression and long-distance contact.
- Julie E. Elie
- & Frédéric E. Theunissen
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Article
| Open AccessLearning auditory discriminations from observation is efficient but less robust than learning from experience
Many animals can learn, not just by direct experience, but by observing another animal performing a task. Here, the authors show in zebra finches that observer learning is efficient, but differs from direct learning in that it is less generalizable to novel stimuli.
- Gagan Narula
- , Joshua A. Herbst
- & Richard H. R. Hahnloser
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Article
| Open AccessCultural conformity generates extremely stable traditions in bird song
‘Conformist bias’, in which individuals learn a common behavioural variant more often than expected by chance, has not been demonstrated convincingly in non-human animals. This study analyses song recordings and models of cultural evolution to show conformist bias in swamp sparrow populations.
- Robert F. Lachlan
- , Oliver Ratmann
- & Stephen Nowicki
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Article
| Open AccessZebrafish and medaka offer insights into the neurobehavioral correlates of vertebrate magnetoreception
Advances in animal magnetoreception have been limited by a lack of tractable vertebrate laboratory models. Here, the authors demonstrate light-independent magnetoreception in mature zebrafish and medaka, as well as magnetosensitive locomotion in juvenile medaka associated with neuronal activation in the lateral hindbrain.
- Ahne Myklatun
- , Antonella Lauri
- & Gil G. Westmeyer
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Article
| Open AccessThe assassin bug Pristhesancus plagipennis produces two distinct venoms in separate gland lumens
Venom can be used both offensively for prey capture and defensively to deter predators. Here, Walker and colleagues demonstrate that the assassin bug Pristhesancus plagipennis has two distinct venom glands that produce venoms with distinct compositions that can be elicited by different stimuli.
- Andrew A. Walker
- , Mark L. Mayhew
- & Glenn F. King
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Review Article
| Open AccessAdvancing behavioural genomics by considering timescale
Gene expression and behaviours are intimately related, and their interactions can play out over timescales from developmental to evolutionary. Here, the authors review how temporal aspects of gene expression mediate behavioural responses to the environment, a key question in behavioural genomics.
- Clare C. Rittschof
- & Kimberly A. Hughes
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Article
| Open AccessAuditory opportunity and visual constraint enabled the evolution of echolocation in bats
Substantial evidence now supports the idea that the ancestral bat was a small, night flying predator capable of laryngeal echolocation. Here, the authors confirm this hypothesis using phylogenetic comparative analyses and further suggest an underlying tradeoff between echolocation and vision in both ancient and modern species and an association between sensory specialization and diet.
- Jeneni Thiagavel
- , Clément Cechetto
- & John M. Ratcliffe
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Article
| Open AccessA soft selective sweep during rapid evolution of gentle behaviour in an Africanized honeybee
Africanized honey bees (AHB) are notoriously aggressive, but in Puerto Rico they have a ‘gentle’ phenotype. Here, Avalos et al. show that there has been a soft selective sweep at several loci in the Puerto Rican AHB population and suggest a role in the rapid evolution of gentle behaviour.
- Arian Avalos
- , Hailin Pan
- & Guojie Zhang
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Article
| Open AccessDirect benefits explain interspecific variation in helping behaviour among cooperatively breeding birds
Helpers in cooperatively breeding species can gain indirect benefits when caring for kin, but care may also be directed towards non-kin. Here, Kingma shows that, in cooperatively breeding birds, helping non-kin is common and helping effort is higher when there is potential for direct benefits from territory inheritance.
- Sjouke A. Kingma
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Article
| Open AccessDynamic plasticity in phototransduction regulates seasonal changes in color perception
Animal coloration and behavior can change seasonally, but it is unclear if visual sensitivity to color shifts as well. Here, Shimmura et al. show that medaka undergo seasonal behavioral change accompanied by altered expression of opsin genes, resulting in reduced visual sensitivity to mates during winter-like conditions.
- Tsuyoshi Shimmura
- , Tomoya Nakayama
- & Takashi Yoshimura
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Article
| Open AccessLong-term consistency in chimpanzee consolation behaviour reflects empathetic personalities
Non-human animals are known to exhibit behaviours suggestive of empathy, but the development and maintenance of these traits is unexplored. Here, Webb and colleagues quantify individual consolation tendencies over 10 years across two chimpanzee groups and show evidence of consistent ‘empathetic personalities’.
- Christine E. Webb
- , Teresa Romero
- & Frans B. M. de Waal
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Article
| Open AccessThe genetic basis of natural variation in a phoretic behavior
Nematodes use a characteristic set of movements, called nictation, to hitchhike on more mobile animals. Here, Lee et al. identify a genetic locus in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans that underlies nictation and contributes to successful hitchhiking, but at expense of reduced offspring production.
- Daehan Lee
- , Heeseung Yang
- & Junho Lee
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Article
| Open AccessAnts regulate colony spatial organization using multiple chemical road-signs
While the organization of ants within their nest is key for colony function, it remains unknown how ants navigate this dark subterranean environment. Here, Heymanet al. use a series of behavioral tests, chemical analyses, and machine learning to identify chemical landmarks that ants use to distinguish between nest areas.
- Yael Heyman
- , Noam Shental
- & Ofer Feinerman
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Article
| Open AccessBehavioural individuality in clonal fish arises despite near-identical rearing conditions
Genetically-identical animals experiencing the same environmental conditions should develop, in theory, identical behavioral traits. However, Bierbachet al. show here that behavioral differences still emerge among cloned fish under tightly controlled experimental conditions.
- David Bierbach
- , Kate L. Laskowski
- & Max Wolf
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Article
| Open AccessCumulative culture can emerge from collective intelligence in animal groups
Groups of animals tend to solve tasks better than individuals, but it is unclear whether such socially-derived knowledge accumulates over time. Sasaki and Biro demonstrate that homing pigeon flocks progressively improve the efficiency of their routes by culturally accumulating knowledge across generations.
- Takao Sasaki
- & Dora Biro
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Article
| Open AccessClimbing favours the tripod gait over alternative faster insect gaits
Numerous selective forces shape animal locomotion patterns and as a result, different animals evolved to use different gaits. Here, Ramdyaet al. use live and in silicoDrosophila, as well as an insect-model robot, to gain insights into the conditions that promote the ubiquitous tripod gait observed in most insects.
- Pavan Ramdya
- , Robin Thandiackal
- & Dario Floreano
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Article
| Open AccessControl of finite critical behaviour in a small-scale social system
Proximity to criticality can be advantageous under changing conditions, but it also entails reduced robustness. Here, the authors analyse fight sizes in a macaque society and find not only that it sits near criticality, but also that the distance from the critical point is tunable through adjustment of individual behaviour and social conflict management.
- Bryan C. Daniels
- , David C. Krakauer
- & Jessica C. Flack
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Article
| Open AccessEthological principles predict the neuropeptides co-opted to influence parenting
Parental care involves shifts in numerous behaviours related to mating, feeding, aggression and social interaction. Here, the authors show that, in burying beetles, parenting is associated with increased levels of neuropeptides known to mediate these precursor behaviours, suggesting co-option of existing genetic pathways.
- Christopher B. Cunningham
- , Majors J. Badgett
- & Allen J. Moore
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Article
| Open AccessMate choice in fruit flies is rational and adaptive
A characteristic of rational behaviour is that it is transitive, such that preferences are ranked in a strict linear order. Here, Arbuthnott and colleagues show that mate choice in the fruit fly,Drosophila melanogaster, is transitive at the population level and that preferred mates produce more offspring.
- Devin Arbuthnott
- , Tatyana Y. Fedina
- & Daniel E. L. Promislow
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Article
| Open AccessLimiting parental feedback disrupts vocal development in marmoset monkeys
The development of mature vocal patterns is shaped by parental influence in many animals. Here, Gultekin and Hage show that parental feedback not only influences vocal development, but is indeed necessary for juvenile marmosets to acquire normal vocal behaviour.
- Yasemin B. Gultekin
- & Steffen R. Hage
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Article
| Open AccessThe suppression of Antarctic bottom water formation by melting ice shelves in Prydz Bay
Antarctic bottom water (AABW) production is critical to the global ocean overturning circulation. Here, the authors show new observations of AABW formation from seal CTD data in Prydz Bay, East Antarctica that highlights its susceptibility to increased freshwater input from the melting of ice shelves.
- G. D. Williams
- , L. Herraiz-Borreguero
- & M. Hindell
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Article
| Open AccessOvarian fluid allows directional cryptic female choice despite external fertilization
In some species with internal fertilization, females can mate with multiple males and then manipulate which sperm fertilize the eggs. Here, Alonzo et al.find that by releasing ovarian fluid along with their eggs, female ocellated wrasse are able to influence paternity despite having external fertilization.
- Suzanne H. Alonzo
- , Kelly A. Stiver
- & Susan E. Marsh-Rollo
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Article
| Open AccessDynamic polarization vision in mantis shrimps
Mantis shrimps are known to display large pitch, yaw and torsional eye rotations. Here, the authors show that these eye movements allow mantis shrimp to orientate particular photoreceptors in order to better discriminate the polarization of light.
- Ilse M. Daly
- , Martin J. How
- & Nicholas W. Roberts
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Article
| Open AccessNeonatal face-to-face interactions promote later social behaviour in infant rhesus monkeys
Like humans, neonatal primates engage in face-to-face interactions with their mothers from an early age. Dettmer and colleagues demonstrate that in monkeys, increasing neonatal face-to-face interactions enhances social interest in infants of two and five months.
- Amanda M. Dettmer
- , Stefano S. K. Kaburu
- & Pier F. Ferrari
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Article
| Open AccessEnergy cost and return for hunting in African wild dogs and cheetahs
The long-distance hunting behaviour of African wild dogs is thought to be energetically costly. Here, Hubel et al. show that multiple opportunistic short-distance hunts and group feeding make African wild dogs in mixed woodland savannah energetically robust.
- Tatjana Y. Hubel
- , Julia P. Myatt
- & Alan M. Wilson