The evolution and extinction of the ichthyosaurs from the perspective of quantitative ecospace modelling.

abstract：:Somatic deterioration in ageing animals may arise from allocation of resources to reproduction at the expense of repair and maintenance. Thus, accumulated reproductive effort is likely to progressively limit the expression of sexual ornaments at older ages. We analysed the effect of age and reproductive effort on the ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Velando A,Drummond H,Torres R

更新日期：2010-04-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Many geckos use adhesive toe pads on the bottom of their digits to attach to surfaces with remarkable strength. Although gecko adhesion has been studied for hundreds of years, gaps exist in our understanding at the whole-animal level. It remains unclear whether the strength and maintenance of adhesion are determined b...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Stewart WJ,Higham TE

更新日期：2014-12-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Domesticated animals have been shown to recognize basic phonemic information from human speech sounds and to recognize familiar speakers from their voices. However, whether animals can spontaneously identify words across unfamiliar speakers (speaker normalization) or spontaneously discriminate between unfamiliar speak...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Root-Gutteridge H,Ratcliffe VF,Korzeniowska AT,Reby D

更新日期：2019-12-24 00:00:00

abstract：:Domestic dogs have been recognized for their social sensitivity and aptitude in human-guided tasks. For example, prior studies have demonstrated that dogs look to humans when confronted with an unsolvable task; an action often interpreted as soliciting necessary help. Conversely, wolves persist on such tasks. While do...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Udell MA

更新日期：2015-09-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The shape of the association between age and the cost of reproduction varies across species. However, it is unclear whether there are any general patterns in the way the cost of reproduction varies with life history, taxon or ecological function. Using a simple theoretical method, we identified three characteristic pa...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Proaktor G,Milner-Gulland EJ,Coulson T

更新日期：2007-12-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Avian predators learn to avoid defended insects on the basis of their conspicuous warning coloration. In many aposematic species, the level of chemical defence varies, with some individuals being more defended than others. Sequestration and production of defence chemicals is often costly and therefore less defended in...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Skelhorn J,Rowe C

更新日期：2006-09-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Anthropogenic impacts are believed to be the primary threats to the eastern Australian population of grey nurse sharks (Carcharias taurus), which is listed as critically endangered, and the most threatened population globally. Analyses of 235 polymorphic amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) loci and 700 base...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Stow A,Zenger K,Briscoe D,Gillings M,Peddemors V,Otway N,Harcourt R

更新日期：2006-06-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Biodiversity affects ecosystem function, and how this relationship will change in a warming world is a major and well-examined question in ecology. Yet, it remains understudied for pico-phytoplankton communities, which contribute to carbon cycles and aquatic food webs year-round. Observational studies show a link betw...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Zhong D,Listmann L,Santelia ME,Schaum CE

更新日期：2020-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) plays a key role in vertebrate immunity, and pathogen-mediated selection often favours certain allelic combinations. Assessing potential mates' MHC profiles may provide receivers with genetic benefits (identifying MHC-compatible mates and producing optimally diverse offspring...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Slade JWG,Watson MJ,MacDougall-Shackleton EA

更新日期：2017-11-01 00:00:00

abstract：:In cooperative animal societies, dominant females typically show higher breeding success than subordinates, and are commonly believed to control the extent of reproductive sharing. However, studies of social insect societies reveal that subordinates too can interfere with the breeding attempts of others, with importan...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Young AJ,Clutton-Brock T

更新日期：2006-09-22 00:00:00

abstract：:The present erratum is in regards to our article entitled ‘Ancient DNA and the tropics: a rodent's tale’. We were made aware of problems with some of the ancient sequences submitted to GenBank and conducted a systematic review of all the files used in our study. We discovered that, unfortunately, an incorrect file was...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Gutiérrez-García TA,Vázquez-Domínguez E,Arroyo-Cabrales J,Kuch M,Enk J,King C,Poinar HN

更新日期：2015-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Most songbirds learn their songs from adult tutors, who can be their father or other male conspecifics. However, the variables that control song learning in a natural social context are largely unknown. We investigated whether the time of hatching of male domesticated canaries has an impact on their song development a...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Leitner S,Teichel J,Ter Maat A,Voigt C

更新日期：2015-08-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Mountainous areas contain a substantial part of the world species richness, but the evolutionary origins and diversification of this biodiversity remain elusive. Diversification may result from differences in clade age (longer time to diversify), net diversification rates (faster speciation rate) or carrying capacitie...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Condamine FL

更新日期：2018-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:In group-living mammals, the eviction of subordinate females from breeding groups by dominants may serve to reduce feeding competition or to reduce breeding competition. Here, we combined both correlational and experimental approaches to investigate whether increases in food intake by dominant females reduces their te...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Dubuc C,English S,Thavarajah N,Dantzer B,Sharp SP,Spence-Jones HC,Gaynor D,Clutton-Brock TH

更新日期：2017-04-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Understanding the effects of parasites on host behaviour, of host behaviour on parasite infection, and the reciprocal interactions between these processes is vital to improving our understanding of animal behaviour and disease dynamics. However, behaviour and parasite infection are both highly variable within and betw...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Stephenson JF

更新日期：2019-11-29 00:00:00

abstract：:Terrestrial arthropods, at constant risk from desiccation, are highly sensitive to atmospheric temperature and humidity. A physiological marker of these abiotic conditions could highlight phenotypic adaptations, indicate niche partitioning, and predict responses to climate change for a group representing three-quarter...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ellwood MD,Northfield RG,Mejia-Chang M,Griffiths H

更新日期：2011-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Ocean acidification (OA) poses a major threat to marine ecosystems globally, having significant ecological and economic importance. The number and complexity of experiments examining the effects of OA has substantially increased over the past decade, in an attempt to address multi-stressor interactions and long-term r...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Ellis RP,Davison W,Queirós AM,Kroeker KJ,Calosi P,Dupont S,Spicer JI,Wilson RW,Widdicombe S,Urbina MA

更新日期：2017-02-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Understanding the relationship between disease transmission and host density is essential for predicting disease spread and control. Using long-term data on sarcoptic mange in a red fox Vulpes vulpes population, we tested long-held assumptions of density- and frequency-dependent direct disease transmission. We also as...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Devenish-Nelson ES,Richards SA,Harris S,Soulsbury C,Stephens PA

更新日期：2014-10-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Despite hopes that the processes of molecular evolution would be simple, clock-like and essentially universal, variation in the rate of molecular evolution is manifest at all levels of biological organization. Furthermore, it has become clear that rate variation has a systematic component: rate of molecular evolution ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bromham L

更新日期：2009-06-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Wolves from the Great Lakes area were historically decimated due to habitat loss and predator control programmes. Under the protection of the US Endangered Species Act, the population has rebounded to approximately 3000 individuals. We show that the pre-recovery population was dominated by mitochondrial DNA haplotypes...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Leonard JA,Wayne RK

更新日期：2008-02-23 00:00:00

abstract：:The rapid decline in Arctic sea ice (ASI) extent, area and volume during recent decades is occurring before we can understand many of the mechanisms through which ASI interacts with biological processes both at sea and on land. As a consequence, our ability to predict and manage the effects of this enormous environmen...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Macias-Fauria M,Post E

更新日期：2018-03-01 00:00:00

abstract：:Pectinodontid limpets are important members of deep-sea hot vents and cold seeps as can be seen by their conspicuous presence in both extant and extinct systems. They have traditionally been classified into different genera and species based on shell and radula characteristics; the reliability of these characters has ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Chen C,Watanabe HK,Nagai Y,Toyofuku T,Xu T,Sun J,Qiu JW,Sasaki T

更新日期：2019-10-31 00:00:00

abstract：:A long-standing but controversial hypothesis assumes that carnivorous plants employ aggressive mimicry to increase their prey capture success. A possible mechanism is that pitcher plants use aggressive mimicry to deceive prey about the location of the pitcher's exit. Specifically, species from unrelated families sport...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Schaefer HM,Ruxton GD

更新日期：2014-04-30 00:00:00

abstract：:With an increasing amount of data becoming available, comparative analyses have called attention to the associations between cooperative breeding, monogamy and relatedness. We focus here upon the association between allomaternal care and relatedness among females within a social unit. Previous studies found a positive...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Briga M,Pen I,Wright J

更新日期：2012-08-23 00:00:00

abstract：:Adaptive radiations often exhibit high levels of phenotypic replication, a phenomenon that can be explained by selection on standing variation in repeatedly divergent environments or by the influence of ancestral plasticity on selection in divergent environments. Here, we offer the first evidence that plastic loss of ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Foster SA,O'Neil S,King RW,Baker JA

更新日期：2019-01-31 00:00:00

abstract：:Dated phylogenies of fossil taxa allow palaeobiologists to estimate the timing of major divergences and placement of extinct lineages, and to test macroevolutionary hypotheses. Recently developed Bayesian 'tip-dating' methods simultaneously infer and date the branching relationships among fossil taxa, and infer putati...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Bapst DW,Wright AM,Matzke NJ,Lloyd GT

更新日期：2016-07-01 00:00:00

abstract：:The phenomenon of endocrine disruption is currently a source of growing concern. Feminization of male fish in UK rivers has been shown to occur extensively and has been linked with exposure to endocrine-disrupting compounds present in the environment. Much less is known of the extent and scale of endocrine disruption ...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Chesman BS,Langston WJ

更新日期：2006-09-22 00:00:00

abstract：:Collective responses to threats occur throughout the animal kingdom but little is known about the cognitive processes underpinning them. Antipredator mobbing is one such response. Approaching a predator may be highly risky, but the individual risk declines and the likelihood of repelling the predator increases in larg...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Coomes JR,McIvor GE,Thornton A

更新日期：2019-10-31 00:00:00

abstract：:In this study of body temperatures (T(b)) in free ranging dromedary camels, we found that bulls in rut start the days cooler. Daily minima during rut averaged 0.6 degrees C lower than at other times (95% CI 0.27-0.94 degrees C) and daily maxima averaged 0.45 degrees C higher (95% CI -0.01 to -0.91 degrees C), increasi...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Grigg G,Beard L,Dörges B,Heucke J,Coventry J,Coppock A,Blomberg S

更新日期：2009-12-23 00:00:00

abstract：:If a mother's nutritional status predicts the nutritional environment of the offspring, it would be adaptive for mothers experiencing nutritional stress to prime their offspring for a better tolerance to poor nutrition. We report that in Drosophila melanogaster, parents raised on poor larval food laid 3-6% heavier egg...

journal_title：Biology letters

authors： Vijendravarma RK,Narasimha S,Kawecki TJ

更新日期：2010-04-23 00:00:00