Find research datasets worth reusing
Search datasets from major research repositories and use ShareScore to quickly assess how well each record supports discovery, access, and reuse.
13
datasets available to search
ShareScore release 0.9.0
Dataset results
13 results for “Weapon evolution”
Macroevolution of sexually selected weapons: weapon evolution in chameleons
Abstract The evolution of sexually selected traits is a major topic in evolutionary biology. However, large-scale evolutionary patterns in these traits remain understudied, especially those traits used in male–male competition (weapons sensu lato). Here, we analyze weapon evolution in chamaeleonid lizards, both within and between the sexes. Chameleons are an outstanding model system because of their morphological diversity (including 11 weapon types among ~220 species) and a large-scale time-calibrated phylogeny. We analyze these 11 traits among 165 species using phylogenetic methods, addressing many questions for the first time in any group. We find that all 11 weapons have each evolved multiple times and that weapon origins are generally more frequent than their losses. We find that almost all weapons have each persisted for >30 million years (and some for >65 million years). Across chameleon phylogeny, we identify both hotspots for weapon evolution (up to 10 types present per species) and coldspots (all weapons absent, many through loss). These hotspots are significantly associated with larger male body size, but are only weakly related to sexual-size dimorphism. We also find that weapon evolution is strongly correlated between males and females. Overall, these results provide a baseline for understanding large-scale patterns of weapon evolution within clades.
Macroevolution of sexually selected weapons: weapon evolution in chameleons
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Weapon performance drives weapon evolution
Many sexually selected traits function as weapons, and these weapons can be incredibly diverse. However, the factors underlying weapon diversity among species remain poorly understood, and a fundamental hypothesis to explain this diversity remains untested. Although weapons can serve multiple functions, an undeniably important function is their role in fights. Thus, a crucial hypothesis is that weapon diversification is driven by the evolution of weapon modifications that provide an advantage in combat (e.g. causing more damage). Here, we test this fighting-advantage hypothesis using data from 17 species of coreid bugs. We utilize the fact that male-male combat in coreids often results in detectable damage, allowing us to link different weapon morphologies to different levels of damage among species. We find that certain weapon morphologies inflict much more damage than others, strongly supporting the fighting-advantage hypothesis. Moreover, very different weapon morphologies can inflict similarly severe amounts of damage, leading to a weapon-performance landscape with multiple performance peaks. This multi-peak pattern could potentially drive different lineages towards divergent weapon forms, further increasing weapon diversity among species. Overall, our results may help explain how sexually selected weapons have evolved into the diversity of forms seen today.
Data and codes from: Flight hampers the evolution of weapons in birds
<p>Birds are a remarkable example of how sexual selection can produce diverse ornaments and behaviors. Specialized fighting structures like deer's antlers, in contrast, are mostly absent among birds. Here, we investigated if the birds' costly mode of locomotion — powered flight — helps explain the scarcity of weapons among members of this clade. Our simulations of flight energetics predicted that the cost of bony spurs — a specialized avian weapon — should increase with time spent flying. Bayesian phylogenetic comparative analyses using a global spur dataset corroborated this prediction. First, extant species with flight-efficient wings (which presumably fly more frequently) tend to have fewer or no bony spurs. Second, this association likely arose because flying more leads to more frequent evolutionary loss of spurs. Together, these findings suggest that, much like pneumatic bones, absence of weaponry may be another feature of the avian body plan that allows birds to efficiently explore the aerial habitat.</p>
Data from: Allometric constraints and the modulation of weapon evolution by mating system in fiddler crabs
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Weapon performance drives weapon evolution
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data and codes from: Flight hampers the evolution of weapons in birds
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: The tale of the shrinking weapon: seasonal changes in nutrition affect weapon size and sexual dimorphism, but not contemporary evolution
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Cybernetic combatants support the importance of duels in the evolution of extreme weapons
A current evolutionary hypothesis predicts that the most extreme forms of animal weaponry arise in systems where combatants fight each other one-to-one, in duels. It has also been suggested that arms races in human interstate conflicts are more likely to escalate in cases where there are only two opponents. However, directly testing whether duels matter for weapon investment is difficult in animals and impossible in interstate conflicts. Here, we test whether superior combatants experience a disproportionate advantage in duels, as compared with multi-combatant skirmishes, in a system analogous to both animal and military contests; the battles fought by artificial intelligence agents in a computer war-game. We found that combatants with experimentally improved fighting power had a large advantage in duels, but that this advantage deteriorated as the complexity of the battlefield was increased by the addition of further combatants. This pattern remained under the two different forms of advantage granted to our focal A.I. combatants, and became reversed when we switched the roles to feature a weak focal A.I. among strong opponents. Our results suggest that one-on-one combat may trigger arms races in diverse systems. These results corroborate the outcomes of studies of both animal and interstate contests, and suggest that elements of animal contest theory may be widely applicable to arms races generally.
Data from: Sperm competition and the evolution of precopulatory weapons: testis size and amplexus position, but not arm strength, affect fertilization success in a chorusing frog
Trade-offs between pre- and postcopulatory traits influence their evolution, and male expenditure on such traits is predicted to depend on the number of competitors, the benefits from investing in weapons, and the risk and intensity of sperm competition. Males of the chorusing frog Crinia georgiana use their arms as weapons in contest competition. Previously, we showed that increased numbers of rivals elevated the risk and intensity of sperm competition due to multimale amplexus, and caused a reversal in the direction of precopulatory selection on arm girth. Here we focused on the factors affecting postcopulatory fertilization success during group spawning, using paternity data from natural choruses. Competitive fertilization success depended on the time spent amplexed and amplexus position. Relative testes size but not arm girth, contributed to fertilization success, but the effect of testes size depended on amplexus position. Our findings offer within species empirical support for recent sperm competition models that incorporate precopulatory male-male competition, and show why an understanding of the evolution of animal weapons requires a consideration of both pre- and postcopulatory episodes of sexual selection.
Data from: Sperm competition and the evolution of precopulatory weapons: Increasing male density promotes sperm competition and reduces selection on arm strength in a chorusing frog
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Sperm competition and the evolution of precopulatory weapons: testis size and amplexus position, but not arm strength, affect fertilization success in a chorusing frog
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
Data from: Cybernetic combatants support the importance of duels in the evolution of extreme weapons
Open the record for dataset details and reuse information.
ScienceDex guides
Understand access before you commit
These curated guides explain access requirements, typical timelines, costs, and reuse considerations for widely used research datasets.
Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.