scholarly journals Friends, neighbours and enemies: an overview of the communal and social biology of plants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roza D. Bilas ◽  
Amanda Bretman ◽  
Tom Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Social Biology

scholarly journals Summer School in Social Biology

Nature ◽  
1944 ◽  
Vol 153 (3882) ◽  
pp. 373-373
Keyword(s):  
Summer School ◽  
Social Biology

How Giraffes Work

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Single Species ◽  
Free Living ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Normal Functions ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
Social Biology ◽  
Biochemical Systems ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Physiological And Biochemical ◽  
Biological Milieu

There are few creatures more beautiful, more aloof, and more fascinating than giraffes. Once they were plentiful and filled African landscapes, but in 2016 they were re-classified from “least concern” to “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Their survival in the wild is not assured. Much has been written about their private lives, about their behavior, social biology, and ecology, and their history in art and diplomacy. But so far no book has been written about their private lives, their physiology, and their anatomy and biochemistry—in short, the normal functions of a free-living animal in its natural environment—and it is these aspects of their lives that are the focus of this book. The study of a single species could be concise and relatively simply told. In reality it is not. A species never evolves in isolation from the general biological milieu in which it finds itself. Tectonics, astronomical physics, climate, and purely biological factors affecting food and water resources all shape the path of their evolution and all interact with its morphology, its internal physiological and biochemical systems, and the behavior patterns that regulate its daily life. Giraffes are no exception, as is revealed as the story told here unfolds. How do giraffes work? The answers lie in a story filled not only with the internal workings of a unique creature, but with geography, climate changes of great magnitude, and the labors of extraordinary people who put many pieces of the puzzle together.

Ecology and social biology of the southern three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus; Cingulata: Chlamyphoridae)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Attias ◽  
E Gurarie ◽  
W F Fagan ◽  
G Mourão
Keyword(s):  
Home Range ◽  
Body Mass ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Home Range Size ◽  
Range Size ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Movement Behavior ◽  
Home Ranges ◽  
Social Biology

Abstract Basic knowledge of species biology and ecology is essential for the assessment of species conservation status and planning for efficient conservation strategies; however, this information is not always readily available. Here we use movement behavior to understand the ecology and social biology of the poorly known southern three-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes matacus). We used VHF and GPS telemetry to monitor 26 individuals from two sites in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil. We characterized armadillo activity patterns, evaluated the relationship between sex and body mass with home range size and mean daily distance traveled, and examined home and core range overlap. Three-banded armadillos were active on average for 5.5 ± 2.8 h/day, with most of their activity concentrated in the first half of the night. Adult males were heavier and had larger home ranges than adult females. Home range size scaled positively with body mass for males, but not for females. Core ranges for females overlapped little (< 1%) regardless of age, but home ranges for males overlapped both with other males (12%) and females (18%). Our data suggest that three-banded armadillos are mainly a nocturnal species. Home range and spacing patterns point to a generally asocial behavior and a polygynous or promiscuous mating system. We hope that the data generated as a result of this project will contribute to this species’ conservation in Brazil and elsewhere by guiding future management and research efforts.

On the institutional and intellectual division of labor in epigenetics research: A scientometric analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-143
Author(s):  
Julien Larregue ◽  
Vincent Larivière ◽  
Philippe Mongeon
Keyword(s):  
Dna Methylation ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Behavior Genetics ◽  
Scientometric Analysis ◽  
Extended Version ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Editorial Material ◽  
Social Biology ◽  
Environmental Epigenetics ◽  
Social Scientific

While numerous qualitative social scientific analyses of (environmental) epigenetics have been published, we still lack a macro-level, quantitative assessment of the field of epigenetics as a whole. This article is aimed at filling this gap. Mobilizing an extended version of the Web of Science, we constituted a corpus of 199,484 documents (articles, reviews, editorial material, etc.) published between 1991 and 2017 and performed several scientometric analyses to map out the development and structure of the epigenetics field. Three main results were drawn from these investigations. First, contradicting the hope expressed by some social scientists that their disciplines will find solace in epigenetics’ social biology, it is striking that the scientists, journals and institutions that drive most of the research in the field are overall little concerned with social and environmental dimensions of gene expression. Second, and confirming existing qualitative analyses, we find that epigenetics is constituted by diverse networks of scholars, institutions and research specialties that enjoy relative autonomy from each other and approach epigenetics through different thematic interests, from cognitive functions to cancer, to DNA methylation in plants and molecular biology. Third, findings obtained from the bibliographic coupling showed that these different networks became more and more autonomous over the last decade, which suggests that we are currently witnessing the constitution of a scientific archipelago akin to that of behavior genetics (Panofsky, 2014: 33) rather than to a discipline per se. At the same time, this differentiation was less pronounced conceptually speaking, as we also observed a clear standardization of the keywords used in epigenetics articles between 1991 and 2017, with DNA methylation and RNAs serving as rallying signs for different communities of researchers.

On Human Social Biology. I. Preliminary Remarks

1938 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-451
Author(s):  
Antonio Ciocco
Keyword(s):  
Social Biology ◽  
Biology I

scholarly journals Summer School in Social Biology

Nature ◽  
1940 ◽  
Vol 145 (3680) ◽  
pp. 740-740
Keyword(s):  
Summer School ◽  
Social Biology
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