Biological Reviews
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SEXUAL SELECTION, HONEST ADVERTISEMENT AND THE HANDICAP PRINCIPLE: REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE SUMMARY To find out whether a mating preference could have initially evolved for adaptive reasons, one must determine whether the preferred trait could have provided useful information about mate quality at the time when the preference first arose. One way to do so is to determine whether the preference evolved before or after the preferred trait. If the preference evolved first, then it cannot initially have served an adaptive function in mate choice, rather it must have arisen by random drift, or as a pleiotropic consequence of selection acting on other aspects of individual perceptual abilities. A number of studies have shown that females exhibit a mating preference (e.g. for movement) in non‐sexual contexts also, which suggests that it may have evolved for reasons unconnected to mate choice. In addition, phylogenetic analyses have revealed that in several cases, females of a certain taxon exhibit a preference for a male trait that is absent in a sister taxon and in outgroup taxa, and that this preference is shared by females of the sister taxon tacking the male trait. The principle of parsimony suggests that such a preference has been inherited from a common ancestor, while the preferred trait arose only once in the lineage exhibiting the trait, i.e. that the preference predates the attractive trait. While the above evidence indicates that females may possess ‘hidden’ preferences for male traits that are not exhibited by members of their own species, and that in at least some cases males have later evolved display traits that exploit preexisting preferences of this kind, there have been too few historical studies of preference evolution to allow one to assess the frequency of such exploitation. Moreover historical studies cannot provide strong support for the adaptive origin hypothesis, because coevolution of trait and preference (as opposed to exploitation of a pre‐existing bias) is compatible with Fisherian models of preference evolution as well as with honest advertisement and the handicap principle. One can conclude only that while some mating preferences did not originally evolve for adaptive reasons, others may or may not have done so. To find out whether a mating preference is currently maintained by natural selection because the preferred trait provides useful information about mate quality, one must investigate the phenotypic and genotypic correlates of display, and the fitness consequences of mate choice. A review of the published data reveals some support for the ideas of adaptive choice and honest advertisement. In a number of species, preferred display traits are correlated with putative measures of quality, and in a small proportion of these, there is evidence that reproductive success and/or offspring performance are higher for individuals mated to attractive partners. Very few studies report a failure to find any such correlates of display or any such benefits. While the above result suggests that honest advertisement does sometimes occur in extant populations (which does not necessarily imply that preferred traits originally evolved as reliable indicators of mate quality), the possibility of publication bias means that one cannot assess how widespread it is. More data is needed to remedy this problem, particularly regarding the fitness consequences of mate choice for females. Experimental rather than observational methods are the best means to gather such data. Studies that look for correlates of display, for instance, should rely on experimentally induced rather than natural variation in ‘quality’. The most common correlates of male display are age and dominance. The latter observation suggests that there may often be interactions between the processes of intersexual and intrasexual selection. There is considerably more evidence to support the idea of female choice for direct than for indirect benefits. At the same time, however, it is apparent that mating decisions are commonly influenced by more than one measure of quality, so that these two kinds of choice need not be independent. To assess this possibility will require more studies of the relationship between male attractiveness and offspring performance. Mate choice is frequently based on more than one display trait, and each trait is frequently influenced by more than one aspect of quality. ‘One quality, one trait’ views of honest advertisement are simplistic, and must be abandoned. Honesty in sexual displays is sometimes maintained by cost (as in strategic handicap models) and sometimes, with approximately equal frequency, by physical necessity (as in revealing handicap models). In some cases, both mechanisms are involved in a single signalling system. To further distinguish between these possibilities will require experimental investigation of display cost, based on manipulation of display traits.
Biological Reviews - Tập 70 Số 1 - Trang 1-65 - 1995
The development of animal personality: relevance, concepts and perspectives Recent studies of animal personality have focused on its proximate causation and its ecological and evolutionary significance, but have mostly ignored questions about its development, although an understanding of the latter is highly relevant to these other questions. One possible reason for this neglect is confusion about many of the concepts and terms that are necessary to study the development of animal personality. Here, we provide a framework for studying personality development that focuses on the properties of animal personality, and considers how and why these properties may change over time. We specifically focus on three dimensions of personality: (1) contextual generality at a given age or time, (2) temporal consistency in behavioural traits and in relationships between traits, and (3) the effects of genes and experience on the development of personality at a given age or life stage. We advocate using a new approach, contextual reaction norms, to study the contextual generality of personality traits at the level of groups, individuals and genotypes, show how concepts and terms borrowed from the literature on personality development in humans can be used to study temporal changes in personality at the level of groups and individuals, and demonstrate how classical developmental reaction norms can provide insights into the ways that genes and experiential factors interact across ontogeny to affect the expression of personality traits. In addition, we discuss how correlations between the effects of genes and experience on personality development can arise as a function of individuals' control over their own environment,via niche‐picking or niche‐construction. Using this framework, we discuss several widely held assumptions about animal personality development that still await validation, identify neglected methodological issues, and describe a number of promising new avenues for future research.
Biological Reviews - Tập 85 Số 2 - Trang 301-325 - 2010
Integrating animal temperament within ecology and evolution Abstract Temperament describes the idea that individual behavioural differences are repeatable over time and across situations. This common phenomenon covers numerous traits, such as aggressiveness, avoidance of novelty, willingness to take risks, exploration, and sociality. The study of temperament is central to animal psychology, behavioural genetics, pharmacology, and animal husbandry, but relatively few studies have examined the ecology and evolution of temperament traits. This situation is surprising, given that temperament is likely to exert an important influence on many aspects of animal ecology and evolution, and that individual variation in temperament appears to be pervasive amongst animal species. Possible explanations for this neglect of temperament include a perceived irrelevance, an insufficient understanding of the link between temperament traits and fitness, and a lack of coherence in terminology with similar traits often given different names, or different traits given the same name. We propose that temperament can and should be studied within an evolutionary ecology framework and provide a terminology that could be used as a working tool for ecological studies of temperament. Our terminology includes five major temperament trait categories: shyness‐boldness, exploration‐avoidance, activity, sociability and aggressiveness. This terminology does not make inferences regarding underlying dispositions or psychological processes, which may have restrained ecologists and evolutionary biologists from working on these traits. We present extensive literature reviews that demonstrate that temperament traits are heritable, and linked to fitness and to several other traits of importance to ecology and evolution. Furthermore, we describe ecologically relevant measurement methods and point to several ecological and evolutionary topics that would benefit from considering temperament, such as phenotypic plasticity, conservation biology, population sampling, and invasion biology.
Biological Reviews - Tập 82 Số 2 - Trang 291-318 - 2007
LIVER MORPHOLOGY Summary The liver is constructed according to one fundamental plan in all vertebrates. It is a continuous mass of cells tunnelled by a labyrinth of lacunae, in which the network of sinusoids is suspended. This structure is termed a muralium (‘wallwork’, system of walls). The walls are predominantly two cells thick in lower vertebrates and in some primitive birds. They are only one cell thick in a few other primitive birds and in all song birds and mammals. Where the liver parenchyma touches the portal and hepatic canals, and the external capsule, it is bounded by the limiting plate, a continuous sheet of liver cells. The portal veins send short inlet venules through holes in the limiting plate to supply the sinusoids. Individual sinusoids empty into the central veins. The sinusoids are lined by one kind of cells: potential phagocytes. These cells never bridge the lumen of sinusoids. The hepatic arteries have direct inlets into the paraportal, intermediate and centrolobular sinusoids. Meshes of bile canaliculi surround each individual liver cell in mammals. In lower vertebrates they rarely form meshes. They drain into intralobular and periportal ductules. The liver lobules are ephemeral. They are only expressions of the temporary blood‐pressure conditions. Reduction of the portohepatic blood‐pressure gradient abolishes hepatic lobules and creates ‘portal’ lobules. This process is reversible. In man, each portal triad (portal vein branch, hepatic artery branch, hepatic duct tributary) has its own sharply delimited territory. There are normally no anastomoses between territories. These portal segments are united by the hepatic veins which cross the boundaries of portal segments. The major branches and roots of these vessels and ducts have been mapped and named. Applications to surgery are suggested. The uniform structure of adult livers arises from a great diversity of developmental processes. Twelve fundamentally different modes of development have been found among thirty species of twenty‐eight genera in sixteen orders out of eight classes of vertebrates. In ten species the mesoderm participates in the formation of the hepatic parenchyma. The ductal system develops in some cases as an outgrowth from the gut; in more cases it develops from liver cells and joins the intestine secondarily. Von Baer's first and second law of embryogenesis, as well as the biogenetic law of Müller and Haeckel, are contradicted by these observations. New evidence is presented for the non‐specificity of germ layers.
Biological Reviews - Tập 30 Số 3 - Trang 263-310 - 1955
ON THE MEANS WHEREBY MAMMALS ACHIEVE INCREASED FUNCTIONAL DURABILITY OF THEIR DENTITIONS, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LIMITING FACTORS
Biological Reviews - Tập 63 Số 2 - Trang 197-230 - 1988
CHEMICAL HETEROGONY AND THE GROUNDPLAN OF ANIMAL GROWTH<sup>1</sup> Summary 1. In the preceding pages the application of the concept of heterogony to the chemical changes in growing Metazoa has been discussed. 2. A number of concrete examples have been brought forward which seem to indicate a uniformity of chemical heterogony in widely different organisms. 3. Hence it is suggested that there exists a fundamental chemical ground‐plan of animal growth, capable of very varying expression in space‐time.
Biological Reviews - Tập 9 Số 1 - Trang 79-109 - 1934
CAROTENOPROTEINS IN INVERTEBRATES SUMMARY True carotenoproteins are defined as complexes in which a carotenoid and a protein are in stoichiometric combination. Very few carotenoproteins have been purified, but their presence in extracts may often be presumed from spectroscopic evidence. Carotenoids have been found in stoichiometric association with simple proteins, lipoproteins and glycoproteins. Many lipoproteins also occur in which carotenoids form part of the lipid prosthetic group. Although the relationship between the carotenoid and the remainder of the complex may in these cases not appear to be stoichiometric, it often shows some evidence of selectivity. Carotenoproteins are widely distributed among the invertebrate phyla. They are found mainly in exoskeleton or ectoderm and in eggs and ovaries. Their isolation by standard techniques of protein chemistry is facilitated by their characteristic spectral properties. The ease with which carotenoid prosthetic groups are removed from apoproteins suggests that covalent linkages are not involved in the complex formation. The union of carotenoid with apoprotein has been shown, in at least two cases, to stabilize the carotenoid against photo‐oxidation and the protein against denaturative changes of tertiary structure. In crustacyanin, the carapace pigment of the lobster, there is clear evidence that the carotenoid is responsible for establishing the very complex quaternary structure. Only astaxanthin, astaxanthin esters and canthaxanthin have been unequivocally identified as carotenoid prosthetic groups of true carotenoproteins. Experiments in the specificity of interaction of a series of carotenoids with the apoprotein of crustacyanin have indicated the requirement of one or both of the 4‐ and 4′‐keto groups of the carotenoid for interaction with the protein. It is suggested that, at least in this case, the carotenoid‐protein interaction might occur between carotenoid keto groups and basic residues of the protein in such a way as to provide a lock on the tertiary configuration. Carotenoproteins may participate in a variety of functions including protective coloration, photosensitivity, electron transport and enzymic activity. They appear, furthermore, to play some part in development.
Biological Reviews - Tập 42 Số 1 - Trang 131-160 - 1967
Consumer‐food systems: why type I functional responses are exclusive to filter feeders ABSTRACT The functional response of a consumer is the relationship between its consumption rate and the abundance of its food. A functional response is said to be of type I if consumption rate increases linearly with food abundance up to a threshold level at which it remains constant. According to conventional wisdom, such type I responses are more frequent among filter feeders than among other consumers. However, the validity of this claim has never been tested. We review 814 functional responses from 235 studies, thereby showing that type I responses are not only exceptionally frequent among filter feeders but that they have only been reported from these consumers. These findings can be understood by considering the conditions that a consumer must fulfil in order to show a type I response. First, the handling condition: the consumer must have a negligibly small handling time (i.e. the time needed for capturing and eating a food item), or it must be able to search for and to capture food while handling other food. Second, the satiation condition: unless its gut is completely filled and gut passage time is minimal, the consumer must search for food at a maximal rate with maximal effort. It thus has to spend much time on foraging (i.e. searching for food and handling it). Our functional response review suggests that only filter feeders sometimes meet both of these conditions. This suggestion is reasonable because filter feeders typically fulfil the handling condition and can meet the satiation condition without losing time, for they are, by contrast to non‐filter feeders, able simultaneously to perform foraging and non‐foraging activities, such as migration or reproduction.
Biological Reviews - Tập 79 Số 2 - Trang 337-349 - 2004
THE STRUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COTTON FIBRE Summary . The details of the structure of the cotton fibre are not only applicable to the study of cell walls in general but also important in the interpretation of those properties which have technological significance. The cotton fibre, a tubular outgrowth of an epidermal cell of the cotton seed, has a four‐layered cell wall: the cuticle, the primary wall and the secondary wall, the first layer of which has recently been distinguished from subsequent layers as ‘the winding’. A fifth layer, bordering the lumen, may possibly be differentiated. The cuticle is usually a characteristic of cells which are exposed to air during some stage of their life cycle; in the cotton fibre it is a mixture of fats, waxes and resins which are released at the surface of the cell during maturation. The cuticle is less than 0–25 μ thick, and although tightly moulded to the primary wall, remains unbroken except over the grossest fibre faults. The long axis of the wax molecules in the cuticle is transverse to the long axis of the cotton fibre. The primary wall is the only layer, apart from the thin cuticle, enclosing the protoplast during the first 15–18 days of fibre growth; it is composed of pectin and cellulose, the deposition of the latter beginning at a very early stage, possibly on the first day of growth. In its structure, the cellulose of the primary wall is likened to an open mesh‐work of fine thread‐like strands in which left‐ and right‐hand spirals (set at an angle of 65–70o to the fibre axis) are associated with another group of strands (set at right angles to the fibre axis). It is believed that living protoplasm is also present in the primary wall. The secondary wall consists of concentric layers of cellulose, each layer (lamella or growth ring) being composed of parallel fibrils which follow a spiral course on the inside of the primary wall. The spiral, which contains many reversals, makes an angle of 20–45o with the axis of the fibre. It is doubtful if the pattern of spirals and reversals in the secondary wall is influenced by that of the primary wall. The first layer of the secondary wall–the winding–is visible in depectinized fibres which have been swollen in cuprammonium hydroxide, as steep spiral strands which make an angle of 20–30o with the long axis of the fibre. Between thirty and fifty reversals occur in the direction of the spiral. The fibrils of subsequent layers of the secondary wall are finer than those of the winding and their pattern of spirals and reversals do not necessarily follow that laid down by the winding. Between twenty and fifty growth rings, each between 0–4 and 0 12μ wide, are visible when transverse sections of cotton fibres are treated with a swelling agent. There is disagreement as to the cause of growth rings; they may be due to the deposition of a more porous zone at night and a more compact zone during the day. If plants are grown in continuous light, no growth rings are seen in the swollen fibres. In fibres not treated with a swelling agent, however, only ten to twelve growth rings, each about i‐oμ wide, were found, while five to seven growth rings were seen in fibres taken from plants which were grown in continuous light. Irreversible twisting occurs when the cell wall of a fibre dries. Changes in the direction of the convolutions are determined by the reversal points in the spiral fibrils of the secondary wall. Differentiation of lint and fuzz is believed to be a continuous process, beginning just before the flower opens, and if fertilization occurs, continuing up to the 28th day after flowering. The fibres at the base of the seed often develop first, and are longer than those which arise at the tip of the seed. The elongation of the fibre occurs during the 25–30 days after flowering. Towards the end of this period there is a deposition of the secondary wall which may continue up to the 78th day after flowering. The growth in length and the deposition of the secondary wall vary according to the variety of the cotton plant and the environmental conditions. Although the theory of the deposition of cellulose by ellipsoidal particles is not entirely disproved, it is much criticized and not generally accepted.
Biological Reviews - Tập 25 Số 4 - Trang 414-434 - 1950
Plant invasions — the role of mutualisms ABSTRACT Many introduced plant species rely on mutualisms in their new habitats to overcome barriers to establishment and to become naturalized and, in some cases, invasive. Mutualisms involving animalmediated pollination and seed dispersal, and symbioses between plant roots and microbiota often facilitate invasions. The spread of many alien plants, particularly woody ones, depends on pollinator mutualisms. Most alien plants are well served by generalist pollinators (insects and birds), and pollinator limitation does not appear to be a major barrier for the spread of introduced plants (special conditions relating to Ficus and orchids are described). Seeds of many of the most notorious plant invaders are dispersed by animals, mainly birds and mammals. Our review supports the view that tightly coevolved, plant‐vertebrate seed dispersal systems are extremely rare. Vertebrate‐dispersed plants are generally not limited reproductively by the lack of dispersers. Most mycorrhizal plants form associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi which, because of their low specificity, do not seem to play a major role in facilitating or hindering plant invasions (except possibly on remote islands such as the Galapagos which are poor in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi). The lack of symbionts has, however, been a major barrier for many ectomycorrhizal plants, notably for Pinus spp. in parts of the southern hemisphere. The roles of nitrogen‐fixing associations between legumes and rhizobia and between actinorhizal plants and Frankia spp. in promoting or hindering invasions have been virtually ignored in the invasions literature. Symbionts required to induce nitrogen fixation in many plants are extremely widespread, but intentional introductions of symbionts have altered the invasibility of many, if not most, systems. Some of the world's worst invasive alien species only invaded after the introduction of symbionts. Mutualisms in the new environment sometimes re‐unite the same species that form partnerships in the native range of the plant. Very often, however, different species are involved, emphasizing the diffuse nature of many (most) mutualisms. Mutualisms in new habitats usually duplicate functions or strategies that exist in the natural range of the plant. Occasionally, mutualisms forge totally novel combinations, with profound implications for the behaviour of the introduced plant in the new environment (examples are seed dispersal mutualisms involving wind‐dispersed pines and cockatoos in Australia; and mycorrhizal associations involving plant roots and fungi). Many ecosystems are becoming more susceptible to invasion by introduced plants because: (a) they contain an increasing array of potential mutualistic partners (e.g. generalist frugivores and pollinators, mycorrhizal fungi with wide host ranges, rhizobia strains with infectivity across genera); and (b) conditions conducive for the establishment of various alienalien synergisms are becoming more abundant. Incorporating perspectives on mutualisms in screening protocols will improve (but not perfect) our ability to predict whether a given plant species could invade a particular habitat.
Biological Reviews - Tập 75 Số 1 - Trang 65-93 - 2000
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