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Cerrito P, Spear JK. Lack of evidence for coevolution between oxytocin receptor N-terminal variants and monogamy in placental mammals. Horm Behav 2023; 156:105437. [PMID: 37806189 DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2023.105437] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/22/2023] [Revised: 08/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 10/10/2023]
Abstract
Oxytocin (OXT) is a neurohypophyseal hormone that influences a wide range of affiliative behaviors, such as pair-bonding and infant care, across mammals. The effects of OXT depend significantly on an adequate interaction with its receptor, OXTR. OXTR belongs to the G-protein coupled receptor family. The extracellular N-terminal domain of OXTR interacts with the linear C-terminal tail of OXT and is required for OXT binding. Across mammalian species there is a genetic diversity in OXTR terminal sequence. Previous work on primates has shown an association between OXTR phylogeny and monogamy. However, it is not clear whether this variation coevolved with either mating system (monogamy) or infant care behaviors (such as allomaternal care). Here, we take a phylogenetic comparative and evolutionary modeling approach across a wide range of placental mammals (n = 60) to test whether OXTR N-terminal variants co-evolved with either monogamy or allomaternal care behaviors. Our results indicate that the diversity in OXTR N-terminal region is unlikely to provide the underlying genetic bases for variation in mating system and/or allomaternal behavior as we find no evidence for co-evolution between protein sequence and affiliative behaviors. Hence, the role played by OXT in influencing affiliative behaviors is unlikely to be mediated by the genetic diversity of its receptor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paola Cerrito
- Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, USA; Collegium Helveticum, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland; Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland.
| | - Jeffrey K Spear
- Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY, USA; New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, USA.
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Hawley CR, Patterson SK, Silk JB. Tradeoffs between mating effort and parenting effort in a polygynandrous mammal. iScience 2023; 26:106991. [PMID: 37534148 PMCID: PMC10391602 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 02/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 08/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Reproductive strategies are defined by expenditures of time and energy devoted to mating effort, which increases mating opportunities, and parenting effort, which enhances the survival of offspring. We examine tradeoffs between mating effort and parenting effort in male olive baboons, Papio anubis, a species in which males compete for mating opportunities, but also form ties to lactating females (primary associations) that represent a form of parenting effort. Males that are involved in more primary associations invest less in mating effort than males who are involved in fewer primary associations. Males that are involved in more primary associations play a smaller role in establishing proximity to their primary associates than other males, suggesting that males operate under temporal constraints. There is also some evidence that involvement in primary associations negatively affects paternity success. Taken together, the data suggest that males face tradeoffs between mating effort and parenting effort.
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Affiliation(s)
- Caitlin R. Hawley
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - Sam K. Patterson
- Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Joan B. Silk
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
- Institute for Human Origins, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
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3
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Pritchard AJ, Palombit RA. Survey-rated personality traits and experimentally measured coping style and stress reactivity, in wild baboons. Am J Primatol 2022; 84:e23429. [PMID: 35996313 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.23429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2022] [Revised: 06/26/2022] [Accepted: 07/30/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The coping style and stress reactivity framework for individual differences in the stress response has been of increasing utility within primatological research. Such differences are often quantified using an experimental approach, but many primatological studies have historically been reliant on a personality-like framework. The personality-like research is derived from human personality literature using survey ratings, while approaches focused on coping styles are often used to interpret differences in small rodents and birds. Experimental approaches benefit from a constrained situation that facilitates control, but sacrifice utility via the generalizability afforded via ratings. Resolving how these two theoretical and methodological approaches intersect is paramount to establishing a biological synthesis between two robust fields of research on individual differences. We applied these frameworks to adult wild olive baboons (Papio anubis) at a field site in Laikipia, Kenya. We quantified coping style and stress reactivity using individually targeted field experiments. We quantified personality trait differences using observer ratings of the monkeys. We isolated three personality trait factors: Neuroticism, Assertiveness, and Friendliness. Personality trait differences showed little association with coping style, but Neuroticism was predicted by stress reactivity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander J Pritchard
- Department of Anthropology, Program in Human Evolutionary Sciences, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.,Center for Human Evolutionary Sciences, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.,National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Ryne A Palombit
- Department of Anthropology, Program in Human Evolutionary Sciences, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.,Center for Human Evolutionary Sciences, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
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Measuring behavioral coping style and stress reactivity experimentally in wild olive baboons. Behav Processes 2021; 195:104564. [PMID: 34915059 DOI: 10.1016/j.beproc.2021.104564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2021] [Revised: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Many nonhuman animals have been used as subjects to elucidate intra-individual variation in the stress response - understood via coping styles and stress reactivity. Given the evidence and theory supporting evolutionary trade-offs associated with such differences, it is surprising, then, how few studies have used wild nonhuman primates to develop this theoretical framework. In the current study, we evaluated this framework using a combination of behaviours from focal follows and an experimental method, novel to the field - collected during a 17 month project on olive baboons (Papio anubis) in Laikipia, Kenya. Our experimental design simultaneously introduces a risk with an incentive: a model snake with a real chicken egg, respectively. Such an approach facilitates multiple solutions to a stressor, a key element of coping style theory. General behavioral tendencies did not associate with the experimental measures of coping style and stress reactivity. These results, however, demonstrated the utility and validity of this experimental approach for measuring coping style and stress reactivity in wild nonhumans. Fear grimaces represented stress reactivity. A factor solution represented coping style - summarizing decision making under stress. The treatment experiment, with a snake and egg, elicited a behavioral stress response, relative to control trials with just an egg.
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5
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Female fertile phase synchrony, and male mating and reproductive skew, in the crested macaque. Sci Rep 2021; 11:4251. [PMID: 33608592 PMCID: PMC7896048 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-81163-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/31/2023] Open
Abstract
High social status is the primary determinant of reproductive success among group-living male mammals. Primates living in multimale-multifemale groups show the greatest variation in the strength of this link, with marked variation in reproductive skew by male dominance among species, dependent on the degree of female fertile phase synchrony, and the number of competing males. Here, we present data on two groups of wild crested macaques (Macaca nigra), living in the Tangkoko Reserve, Sulawesi, Indonesia. We investigated male monopolization of fertile females in 31 cycles of 19 females, and genetic paternity of 14 offspring conceived during the study period. We show that female fertile phase synchrony was low, that females had few mating partners in their fertile phase, and that dominant males monopolized a high proportion of consortships and matings, resulting in marked and steep mating and reproductive skew. We conclude that female cycle asynchrony provides the opportunity for strong direct male-male competition in crested macaques, resulting in monopolization of females by dominant males, consistent with their marked sexual dimorphism. Our study provides a test of the underlying factors that determine the relative occurrence and strength of different mechanisms of sexual selection, and the phenotypes that evolve as a result.
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Städele V, Roberts ER, Barrett BJ, Strum SC, Vigilant L, Silk JB. Male-female relationships in olive baboons (Papio anubis): Parenting or mating effort? J Hum Evol 2019; 127:81-92. [PMID: 30777360 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2018.09.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2018] [Revised: 09/04/2018] [Accepted: 09/13/2018] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Long-term male-female bonds and bi-parental investment in offspring are hallmarks of human society. A key question is how these traits evolved from the polygynandrously mating multimale multifemale society that likely characterized the Pan-Homo ancestor. In all three species of savanna baboons, lactating females form strong ties (sometimes called "friendships") with one or more adult males. For yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) and chacma baboons (Papio ursinus), several lines of evidence suggest that these relationships are a form of male parenting effort. In olive baboons (Papio anubis), females are thought to preferentially mate with their "friends", and male-female bonds may thus function as a form of mating effort. Here, we draw on behavioral and genetic data to evaluate the factors that shape male-female relationships in a well-studied population of olive baboons. We find support for the parenting effort hypothesis in that sires have stronger bonds with their infants' mothers than do other males. These bonds sometimes persist past weaning age and, in many cases, the sire of the previous infant is still a close partner of the female when she nurses her subsequent offspring. We find that males who have the strongest bonds with females that have resumed cycling, but are not currently sexually receptive, are more likely to sire the female's next offspring but the estimate is associated with large statistical uncertainty. We also find that in over one third of the cases, a female's successive infants were sired by the same male. Thus, in olive baboons, the development of stable breeding bonds and paternal investment seem to be grounded in the formation of close ties between males and anestrous females. However, other factors such as male dominance rank also influence paternity success and may preclude stability of these bonds to the extent found in human societies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Veronika Städele
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Eila R Roberts
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 872402, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402, USA
| | - Brendan J Barrett
- Cognitive and Cultural Ecology Group, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Am Obstberg 1, 78315 Radolfzell, Germany; Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Shirley C Strum
- Department of Anthropology, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, 0532, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project, Nairobi, Kenya; Kenya Wildlife Service, P.O. Box 40241-00100, Nairobi, Kenya; African Conservation Centre, P.O. Box 15289-00509, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Linda Vigilant
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Joan B Silk
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 872402, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402, USA; Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, P.O. Box 874101, Tempe, AZ 85287-4101, USA
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Comparing functions of copulation calls in wild olive baboons, Papio anubis, using multimodel inference. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.11.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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8
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King AM, Kirkwood TBL, Shanley DP. Explaining sex differences in lifespan in terms of optimal energy allocation in the baboon. Evolution 2017; 71:2280-2297. [PMID: 28744878 DOI: 10.1111/evo.13316] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2017] [Revised: 06/25/2017] [Accepted: 06/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
We provide a quantitative test of the hypothesis that sex role specialization may account for sex differences in lifespan in baboons if such specialization causes the dependency of fitness upon longevity, and consequently the optimal resolution to an energetic trade-off between somatic maintenance and other physiological functions, to differ between males and females. We present a model in which females provide all offspring care and males compete for access to reproductive females and in which the partitioning of available energy between the competing fitness-enhancing functions of growth, maintenance, and reproduction is modeled as a dynamic behavioral game, with the optimal decision for each individual depending upon his/her state and the behavior of other members of the population. Our model replicates the sexual dimorphism in body size and sex differences in longevity and reproductive scheduling seen in natural populations of baboons. We show that this outcome is generally robust to perturbations in model parameters, an important finding given that the same behavior is seen across multiple populations and species in the wild. This supports the idea that sex differences in longevity result from differences in the value of somatic maintenance relative to other fitness-enhancing functions in keeping with the disposable soma theory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annette M King
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biosciences, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE4 5PL, United Kingdom
| | - Thomas B L Kirkwood
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biosciences, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE4 5PL, United Kingdom.,Center for Healthy Ageing, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3B, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Daryl P Shanley
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biosciences, Campus for Ageing and Vitality, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE4 5PL, United Kingdom
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Fitzpatrick CL, Altmann J, Alberts SC. Exaggerated sexual swellings and male mate choice in primates: testing the reliable indicator hypothesis in the Amboseli baboons. Anim Behav 2015; 104:175-185. [PMID: 26752790 PMCID: PMC4704114 DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.03.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The paradigm of competitive males vying to influence female mate choice has been repeatedly upheld, but, increasingly, studies also report competitive females and choosy males. One female trait that is commonly proposed to influence male mate choice is the exaggerated sexual swelling displayed by females of many Old World primate species. The reliable indicator hypothesis posits that females use the exaggerated swellings to compete for access to mates, and that the swellings advertise variation in female fitness. We tested the two main predictions of this hypothesis in a wild population of baboons (Papio cynocephalus). First, we examined the effect of swelling size on the probability of mate-guarding ('consortship') by the highest-ranking male and the behavior of those males that trailed consorshipts ('follower males'). Second, we asked whether a female's swelling size predicted several fitness measures. We found that high-ranking males do not prefer females with larger swellings (when controlling for cycle number and conception) and that females with larger swellings did not have higher reproductive success. Our study-the only complete test of the reliable indicator hypothesis in a primate population-rejects the idea that female baboons compete for mates by advertising heritable fitness differences. Furthermore, we found unambiguous evidence that males biased their mating decisions in favor of females who had experienced more sexual cycles since their most recent pregnancy. Thus, rather than tracking the potential differences in fitness between females, male baboons appear to track and target the potential for a given reproductive opportunity to result in fertilization.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jeanne Altmann
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA; National Museums of Kenya, Institute of Primate Research, Nairobi, Kenya
| | - Susan C Alberts
- Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA; National Museums of Kenya, Institute of Primate Research, Nairobi, Kenya
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