scholarly journals Correction to ‘O brother, where art thou? Investment in siblings for inclusive fitness benefits, not father absence, predicts earlier age at menarche’

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 20170650
Author(s):  
Daniel Smith
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Father Absence ◽  
Age At Menarche ◽  
Fitness Benefits

scholarly journals O brother, where art thou? Investment in siblings for inclusive fitness benefits, not father absence, predicts earlier age at menarche

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 20170464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Smith
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Father Absence ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
Independent Effect ◽  
Age At Menarche ◽  
Parents And Children ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Numerous studies have indicated that father absence is associated with earlier age at menarche, with many evolutionary theories assuming that father absence is a causal factor that accelerates reproductive development. However, an alternative interpretation suggests that offspring may reproduce earlier in the presence of half- or step-siblings as the indirect fitness benefits to investing in them are lower, relative to delaying reproduction and investing in full siblings. From this perspective, father absence may perform no causal role in facilitating the onset of menarche. Using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, I find that individuals with only half- or step-siblings reach reproductive age earlier than those with only full siblings, with no independent effect of father absence. These results suggest that inclusive fitness benefits to investing in siblings, rather than father absence, may predict variation in age at menarche. These results provide a greater understanding of the adaptive mechanisms involved in reproductive decision-making, as well as potential implications for human life-history evolution and cooperative breeding more broadly.

Father absence, age at menarche, and sexual behaviors in women: Evaluating the genetic confounding hypothesis using the androgen receptor gene.

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel L. Schlomer ◽  
Jessica Murray ◽  
Brianna Yates ◽  
Kerry Hair ◽  
David J. Vandenbergh
Keyword(s):  
Androgen Receptor ◽  
Sexual Behaviors ◽  
Receptor Gene ◽  
Father Absence ◽  
Androgen Receptor Gene ◽  
Age At Menarche

scholarly journals Trinidadian guppies use a social heuristic that can support cooperation among non-kin

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1934) ◽  
pp. 20200487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Safi K. Darden ◽  
Richard James ◽  
James M. Cave ◽  
Josefine Bohr Brask ◽  
Darren P. Croft
Keyword(s):  
Poecilia Reticulata ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Evolution Of Cooperation ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
Cognitive Limitations ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Cooperation among non-kin is well documented in humans and widespread in non-human animals, but explaining the occurrence of cooperation in the absence of inclusive fitness benefits has proven a significant challenge. Current theoretical explanations converge on a single point: cooperators can prevail when they cluster in social space. However, we know very little about the real-world mechanisms that drive such clustering, particularly in systems where cognitive limitations make it unlikely that mechanisms such as score keeping and reputation are at play. Here, we show that Trinidadian guppies ( Poecilia reticulata ) use a ‘walk away’ strategy, a simple social heuristic by which assortment by cooperativeness can come about among mobile agents. Guppies cooperate during predator inspection and we found that when experiencing defection in this context, individuals prefer to move to a new social environment, despite having no prior information about this new social group. Our results provide evidence in non-human animals that individuals use a simple social partner updating strategy in response to defection, supporting theoretical work applying heuristics to understanding the proximate mechanisms underpinning the evolution of cooperation among non-kin.

scholarly journals Do networks of social interactions reflect patterns of kinship?

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 319-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joah R. Madden ◽  
Johanna F. Nielsen ◽  
Tim H. Clutton-Brock
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Temporal Association ◽  
Kinship Networks ◽  
Suricata Suricatta ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Dominance Interactions ◽  
Kin Structure ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
Close Relatives

Abstract The underlying kin structure of groups of animals may be glimpsed from patterns of spatial position or temporal association between individuals, and is presumed to facilitate inclusive fitness benefits. Such structure may be evident at a finer, behavioural, scale with individuals preferentially interacting with kin. We tested whether kin structure within groups of meerkats Suricata suricatta matched three forms of social interaction networks: grooming, dominance or foraging competitions. Networks of dominance interactions were positively related to networks of kinship, with close relatives engaging in dominance interactions with each other. This relationship persisted even after excluding the breeding dominant pair and when we restricted the kinship network to only include links between first order kin, which are most likely to be able to discern kin through simple rules of thumb. Conversely, we found no relationship between kinship networks and either grooming networks or networks of foraging competitions. This is surprising because a positive association between kin in a grooming network, or a negative association between kin in a network of foraging competitions offers opportunities for inclusive fitness benefits. Indeed, the positive association between kin in a network of dominance interactions that we did detect does not offer clear inclusive fitness benefits to group members. We conclude that kin structure in behavioural interactions in meerkats may be driven by factors other than indirect fitness benefits, and that networks of cooperative behaviours such as grooming may be driven by direct benefits accruing to individuals perhaps through mutualism or manipulation [Current Zoology 58 (2): 319–328, 2012].

scholarly journals Recognition of nestmate eggs in the ant Formica fusca is based on queen derived cues

2014 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heikki Helanterä ◽  
Stephen J. Martin ◽  
Francis L.W. Ratnieks
Keyword(s):  
Nestmate Recognition ◽  
Social Insect ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Social Parasite ◽  
Egg Recognition ◽  
Formica Fusca ◽  
Fitness Benefits ◽  
The Right

Abstract Inclusive fitness benefits depend on recognizing the right individuals to interact with. Social insect nests protect themselves from non-kin intruders through nestmate recognition based on chemical cues. The recognition cues on adult individuals are from a mixture of genetic and environmental sources, but the ontogeny and use of recognition cues on eggs has not been previously assessed. We studied recognition by workers of eggs that were either nestmates or non-nestmates. and the ontogeny of recognition cues on eggs in the ant Formica fusca, a species with precise egg recognition abilities. Workers were able to discriminate among freshly laid eggs with no nest derived cues on them, and the egg surface chemicals varied among nests in these eggs, suggesting that queen derived cues are used in nestmate recognition. The results are discussed in the light of their implications on deceptive social parasite strategies and within colony conflicts.

scholarly journals Why inclusive fitness can make it adaptive to produce less fit extra-pair offspring

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1801) ◽  
pp. 20142716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jussi Lehtonen ◽  
Hanna Kokko
Keyword(s):  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Empirical Work ◽  
Reproductive Season ◽  
Breeding Systems ◽  
Social Partner ◽  
Social Monogamy ◽  
Monogamous Species ◽  
Social Partners ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
Fitness Benefits

Social monogamy predominates in avian breeding systems, but most socially monogamous species engage in promiscuous extra-pair copulations (EPCs). The reasons behind this remain debated, and recent empirical work has uncovered patterns that do not seem to fit existing hypotheses. In particular, some results seem to contradict the inbreeding avoidance hypothesis: females can prefer extra-pair partners that are more closely related to them than their social partners, and extra-pair young can have lower fitness than within-pair young. Motivated by these studies, we show that such results can become explicable when an asymmetry in inbreeding tolerance between monogamy and polygamy is extended to species that combine both strategies within a single reproductive season. Under fairly general conditions, it can be adaptive for a female to choose an unrelated social partner, but inbreed with an extra-pair partner. Inbreeding depression is compensated for by inclusive fitness benefits, which are only fully realized in EPCs. We also show that if a female has already formed a suboptimal social bond, there are scenarios where it is beneficial to engage in EPCs with less related males, and others where EPCs with more related males increase her inclusive fitness. This has implications for detecting general relatedness or fitness trends when averaged over several species.

scholarly journals Father Absence and Accelerated Reproductive Development

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Gaydosh ◽  
Daniel W. Belsky ◽  
Benjamin W. Domingue ◽  
Jason D. Boardman ◽  
Kathleen Mullan Harris
Keyword(s):  
Genome Wide Association Study ◽  
Reproductive Development ◽  
Father Absence ◽  
Age At Menarche ◽  
Adult Health ◽  
Reproductive Timing ◽  
First Birth ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Polygenic Scores ◽  
Study Results

AbstractEvidence shows that girls who experience father absence in childhood experience accelerated reproductive development in comparison to peers with present fathers. One hypothesis advanced to explain this empirical pattern is genetic confounding, wherein gene-environment correlation (rGE) causes a spurious relationship between father absence and reproductive timing. We test this hypothesis by constructing polygenic scores for age at menarche and first birth using recently available genome wide association study results and molecular genetic data on a sample of non-Hispanic white females from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Young women’s accelerated menarche polygenic scores were unrelated to their exposure to father absence. In contrast, earlier first-birth polygenic scores tended to be higher in young women raised in homes with absent fathers. Nevertheless, father absence and the polygenic scores independently and additively predict reproductive timing. We find limited evidence in support of the gene-environment correlation hypothesis.

scholarly journals Family composition and age at menarche: Findings from the international Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Steppan ◽  
Ross Whitehead ◽  
Juliet McEachran ◽  
Candace Currie
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Health Behaviour ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Father Absence ◽  
Family Characteristics ◽  
Age At Menarche ◽  
Foster Home ◽  
Psychosomatic Complaints ◽  
Early Menarche ◽  
School Aged Children

Abstract Background Early menarche has been associated with father absence, stepfather presence and adverse health consequences in later life. This article assesses the association of different family compositions with the age at menarche. Pathways are explored which may explain any association between family characteristics and pubertal timing. Methods Cross-sectional, international data on the age at menarche, family structure and covariates (age, psychosomatic complaints, media consumption, physical activity) were collected from the 2009–2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The sample focuses on 15-year old girls comprising 36,175 individuals across 40 countries in Europe and North America (N = 21,075 for age at menarche). The study examined the association of different family characteristics with age at menarche. Regression and path analyses were applied incorporating multilevel techniques to adjust for the nested nature of data within countries. Results Living with mother (Cohen’s d = .12), father (d = .08), brothers (d = .04) and sisters (d = .06) are independently associated with later age at menarche. Living in a foster home (d = −.16), with ‘someone else’ (d = −.11), stepmother (d = −.10) or stepfather (d = −.06) was associated with earlier menarche. Path models show that up to 89% of these effects can be explained through lifestyle and psychological variables. Conclusions Earlier menarche is reported amongst those with living conditions other than a family consisting of two biological parents. This can partly be explained by girls’ higher Body Mass Index in these families which is a biological determinant of early menarche. Lower physical activity and elevated psychosomatic complaints were also more often found in girls in these family environments.

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