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The coevolution of mammae number and litter size

View ORCID ProfileThomas A. Stewart, Ihna Yoo, View ORCID ProfileNathan S. Upham
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.08.331983
Thomas A. Stewart
1Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago
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  • For correspondence: tomstewart@uchicago.edu nathan.upham@asu.edu
Ihna Yoo
1Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago
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Nathan S. Upham
2Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University
3School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
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  • ORCID record for Nathan S. Upham
  • For correspondence: tomstewart@uchicago.edu nathan.upham@asu.edu
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Abstract

Mammals are unique in provisioning their offspring with milk, lactiferous nourishment produced in glandular organs called mammae. Mammae number is hypothesized to coevolve with litter size, acting as a constraint on offspring survival. However, predicted canonical relations between mammae number and litter size (i.e., the ‘one-half’ and ‘identity’ rules) are untested across Mammalia. Here we analyze data for 2,301 species and show how these characters coevolve. In Mammalia, mammae number approximates the maximum reported litter size of a species, and mammae number explains more variation in litter size than other species-level traits (mass, gestation length, diet, and seasonality of contemporary geographic distribution). Clades show differences in these patterns, indicating that certain life history strategies might break the ‘rules’ of mammary evolution. Mammae number is an underappreciated constraint on fecundity that has influenced the radiation of mammals.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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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.
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Posted October 09, 2020.
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The coevolution of mammae number and litter size
Thomas A. Stewart, Ihna Yoo, Nathan S. Upham
bioRxiv 2020.10.08.331983; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.08.331983
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The coevolution of mammae number and litter size
Thomas A. Stewart, Ihna Yoo, Nathan S. Upham
bioRxiv 2020.10.08.331983; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.08.331983

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