RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Is degree of sociality associated with reproductive senescence? A comparative analysis across birds and mammals
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2020.10.29.360636
DO 10.1101/2020.10.29.360636
A1 Csongor I. Vágási
A1 Orsolya Vincze
A1 Jean-François Lemaître
A1 Péter L. Pap
A1 Victor Ronget
A1 Jean-Michel Gaillard
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/12/07/2020.10.29.360636.abstract
AB Our understanding on how widespread reproductive senescence is in the w ild and how the onset and rate of reproductive senescence vary among species in relation to life histories and lifestyles is currently limited. More specifically, whether the species-specific degree of sociality is linked to the occurrence, onset and rate of reproductive senescence remains unknown. Here, we investigate these questions using phylogenetic comparative analyses across 36 bird and 101 mammal species encompassing a wide array of life histories, lifestyles and social traits. We found that female reproductive senescence (1) is widespread and occurs with similar frequency (about two thirds) in birds and mammals; (2) occurs later in life and is slower in birds than in similar-sized mammals; (3) occurs later in life and is lower with an increasingly slower pace of life in both vertebrate classes; and (4) is only weakly associated, if any, with the degree of sociality in both classes after accounting for the effect of body size and pace of life. However, when removing the effect of species differences in pace of life, a higher degree of sociality was associated with later and weaker reproductive senescence in females, which suggests that degree of sociality is either indirectly related to reproductive senescence via the pace of life or simply a direct outcome of the pace of life.Subject Areas ecology, evolutionCompeting Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.