Development of agriculture is often assumed to be accompanied by a decline in residential mobility, and sedentism is frequently proposed to provide the basis for economic intensification, population growth and increasing ...

The occurrence of polygynous marriage in hunter–gatherer societies, which do not accumulate wealth, remains largely unexplored since resource availability is dependent on male hunting capacity and limited by the lack of ...

Throughout an organism’s early development, variations in physiology and behaviours may have long lasting consequences on individual life histories. While a large part of variation in critical life-history transitions ...

Organisms continuously acquire and process information from surrounding cues. While some cues complement one another in delivering more reliable information, others may provide conflicting information. How organisms extract ...

Ripe fruit offer readily available nutrients for many animals, including fruit fly larvae (Diptera: Tephritidae) and their associated rot-inducing bacteria. Yet, during most of their ontogeny, fruit remain chemically ...

The regressive evolution of eyes has long intrigued biologists yet the genetic underpinnings remain opaque. A system of discrete aquifers in arid Australia provides a powerful comparative means to explore trait regression ...

Land-use intensity (LUI) is assumed to impact the genetic structure of organisms. While effects of landscape structure on the genetics of local populations have frequently been analysed, potential effects of variation in ...

Animal societies are typically divided into those in which reproduction within a group is monopolized by a single female versus those in which it is shared among multiple females. It remains controversial, however, whether ...

Synchronous signalling within choruses of the same species either emerges from cooperation or competition. In our study on the katydid Mecopoda elongata, we aim to identify mechanisms driving evolution towards synchrony. ...

Characterizations of coy females and ardent males are rooted in models of sexual selection that are increasingly outdated. Evolutionary feedbacks can strongly influence the sex roles and subsequent patterns of sex ...