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Kinship influences sperm whale social organization within, but generally not among, social units
- Source :
- Konrad, C M, Gero, S, Frasier, T & Whitehead, H 2018, ' Kinship influences sperm whale social organization within, but generally not among, social units ', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 5, no. 8, 180914 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180914, Royal Society Open Science, Vol 5, Iss 8 (2018)
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- Sperm whales have a multi-level social structure based upon long-term, cooperative social units. What role kinship plays in structuring this society is poorly understood. We combined extensive association data (518 days, during 2005–2016) and genetic data (18 microsatellites and 346 bp mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences) for 65 individuals from 12 social units from the Eastern Caribbean to examine patterns of kinship and social behaviour. Social units were clearly matrilineally based, evidenced by greater relatedness within social units (meanr= 0.14) than between them (meanr= 0.00) and uniform mtDNA haplotypes within social units. Additionally, most individuals (82.5%) had a first-degree relative in their social unit, while we found no first-degree relatives between social units. Generally and within social units, individuals associated more with their closer relatives (matrix correlations: 0.18–0.25). However, excepting a highly related pair of social units that merged over the study period, associations between social units were not correlated with kinship (p> 0.1). These results are the first to robustly demonstrate kinship's contribution to social unit composition and association preferences, though they also reveal variability in association preferences that is unexplained by kinship. Comparisons with other matrilineal species highlight the range of possible matrilineal societies and how they can vary between and even within species.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
relatedness
Mitochondrial DNA
AFRICAN ELEPHANTS
Range (biology)
cooperation
MOLECULAR MARKERS
Kin selection
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
cetaceans
03 medical and health sciences
social structure
Sperm whale
Kinship
kin selection
PHYSETER-MACROCEPHALUS
POPULATION-STRUCTURE
lcsh:Science
Matrilineality
Social organization
GROUP AUGMENTATION
Multidisciplinary
biology
matrilineality
GENETIC RELATEDNESS
biology.organism_classification
EVOLUTION
030104 developmental biology
Geography
Evolutionary biology
PAIRWISE RELATEDNESS
COMPUTER-PROGRAM
Microsatellite
lcsh:Q
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20545703
- Volume :
- 5
- Issue :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Royal Society open science
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....f4ac5112722b358f3529156c9324b31d