Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
Contradictory Results

The erratic and contingent progression of research on territoriality: a case study

View ORCID ProfileAmbika Kamath, View ORCID ProfileJonathan Losos
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/107664
Ambika Kamath
1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Ambika Kamath
Jonathan Losos
1Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, 26 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Jonathan Losos
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Our understanding of animal mating systems has changed dramatically with the advent of molecular methods to determine individuals’ reproductive success. But why are older behavioral descriptions and newer genetic descriptions of mating systems often seemingly inconsistent? We argue that a potentially important reason for such inconsistencies is a research trajectory rooted in early studies that were equivocal and overreaching, followed by studies that accepted earlier conclusions at face value and assumed, rather than tested, key ideas about animal mating systems. We illustrate our argument using Anolis lizards, whose social behavior has been studied for nearly a century. A dominant view emerging from this behavioral research was that anoles display strict territorial polygyny, where females mate with just the one male in whose territory they reside. However, all genetic evidence suggests that females frequently mate with multiple males. We trace this mismatch to early studies that concluded that anoles are territorial based on limited data. Subsequent research assumed territoriality implicitly or explicitly, resulting in studies that were unlikely to uncover or consider important any evidence of anoles’ departures from strict territorial polygyny. Thus, descriptions of anole behavior were largely led away from predicting a pattern of female multiple mating. We end by considering the broader implications of such erratic trajectories for the study of animal mating systems, and posit that precise definitions, renewed attention to natural history, and explicitly questioning assumptions made while collecting behavioral observations will allow us to move towards a fuller understanding of animal mating systems.

Footnotes

  • ↵2 ambikamath{at}gmail.com, 617-384-8437

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted February 17, 2017.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The erratic and contingent progression of research on territoriality: a case study
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
The erratic and contingent progression of research on territoriality: a case study
Ambika Kamath, Jonathan Losos
bioRxiv 107664; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/107664
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
The erratic and contingent progression of research on territoriality: a case study
Ambika Kamath, Jonathan Losos
bioRxiv 107664; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/107664

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Animal Behavior and Cognition
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (2517)
  • Biochemistry (4964)
  • Bioengineering (3469)
  • Bioinformatics (15181)
  • Biophysics (6885)
  • Cancer Biology (5380)
  • Cell Biology (7711)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (4518)
  • Ecology (7135)
  • Epidemiology (2059)
  • Evolutionary Biology (10210)
  • Genetics (7497)
  • Genomics (9767)
  • Immunology (4822)
  • Microbiology (13179)
  • Molecular Biology (5129)
  • Neuroscience (29367)
  • Paleontology (203)
  • Pathology (835)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (1460)
  • Physiology (2129)
  • Plant Biology (4734)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1008)
  • Synthetic Biology (1337)
  • Systems Biology (4002)
  • Zoology (768)