Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Modeling the origins of mammalian sociality: moderate evidence for matrilineal signatures in mouse lemur vocalizations

Kessler, Sharon E.; Radespiel, Ute; Hasiniaina, Alida I.F.; Leliveld, Lisette M.C.; Nash, Leanne T.; Zimmermann, Elke

Modeling the origins of mammalian sociality: moderate evidence for matrilineal signatures in mouse lemur vocalizations Thumbnail


Authors

Sharon E. Kessler

Ute Radespiel

Alida I.F. Hasiniaina

Lisette M.C. Leliveld

Leanne T. Nash

Elke Zimmermann



Abstract

Introduction Maternal kin selection is a driving force in the evolution of mammalian social complexity and it requires that kin are distinctive from nonkin. The transition from the ancestral state of asociality to the derived state of complex social groups is thought to have occurred via solitary foraging, in which individuals forage alone, but, unlike the asocial ancestors, maintain dispersed social networks via scent-marks and vocalizations. We hypothesize that matrilineal signatures in vocalizations were an important part of these networks. We used the solitary foraging gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) as a model for ancestral solitary foragers and tested for matrilineal signatures in their calls, thus investigating whether such signatures are already present in solitary foragers and could have facilitated the kin selection thought to have driven the evolution of increased social complexity in mammals. Because agonism can be very costly, selection for matrilineal signatures in agonistic calls should help reduce agonism between unfamiliar matrilineal kin. We conducted this study on a well-studied population of wild mouse lemurs at Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar. We determined pairwise relatedness using seven microsatellite loci, matrilineal relatedness by sequencing the mitrochondrial D-loop, and sleeping group associations using radio-telemetry. We recorded agonistic calls during controlled social encounters and conducted a multi-parametric acoustic analysis to determine the spectral and temporal structure of the agonistic calls. We measured 10 calls for each of 16 females from six different matrilineal kin groups. Results Calls were assigned to their matriline at a rate significantly higher than chance (pDFA: correct = 47.1%, chance = 26.7%, p = 0.03). There was a statistical trend for a negative correlation between acoustic distance and relatedness (Mantel Test: g = -1.61, Z = 4.61, r = -0.13, p = 0.058). Conclusions Mouse lemur agonistic calls are moderately distinctive by matriline. Because sleeping groups consisted of close maternal kin, both genetics and social learning may have generated these acoustic signatures. As mouse lemurs are models for solitary foragers, we recommend further studies testing whether the lemurs use these calls to recognize kin. This would enable further modeling of how kin recognition in ancestral species could have shaped the evolution of complex sociality.

Citation

Kessler, S. E., Radespiel, U., Hasiniaina, A. I., Leliveld, L. M., Nash, L. T., & Zimmermann, E. (2014). Modeling the origins of mammalian sociality: moderate evidence for matrilineal signatures in mouse lemur vocalizations. Frontiers in Zoology, 11(1), Article 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-11-14

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 11, 2014
Online Publication Date Feb 20, 2014
Publication Date Feb 20, 2014
Deposit Date Jul 16, 2018
Publicly Available Date Jul 17, 2018
Journal Frontiers in Zoology
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Issue 1
Article Number 14
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/1742-9994-11-14

Files

Published Journal Article (655 Kb)
PDF

Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© Kessler et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations