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opencc-zeroDec 2016View details →

Data from: Females can solve the problem of low signal reliability by assessing multiple male traits

Male signals that provide information to females about mating benefits are often of low reliability. It is thus not clear why females often express strong signal preferences. We tested the hypothesis that females can distinguish between males with preferred signals that provide lower and higher quality direct benefits. In the field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, females usually prefer higher male chirp rates, but chirp rate is positively correlated with the fecundity benefits females will receive from males only for males that have experienced low quality diets. We paired females with muted males that were maintained on low or high nutrition diets, during the interactions we broadcast a replacement high chirp rate, and we observed whether females mated with the assigned male. Females were more likely to mate when paired with low nutrition males. These results suggest that females have evolved assessment mechanisms that allow them distinguish between males with preferred signals that provide high quality benefits (low nutrition males with high chirp rates) and males with preferred signals that provide low quality benefits (high nutrition males with high chirp rates).

zenodo36/100

Early warning signal reliability varies with COVID-19 waves

Abstract Early warning signals (EWSs) aim to predict changes in complex systems from phenomenological signals in time series data. These signals have recently been shown to precede the emergence of disease outbreaks, offering hope that policy makers can make predictive rather than reactive management decisions. Here, using a novel, sequential analysis in combination with daily COVID-19 case data across 24 countries, we suggest that composite EWSs consisting of variance, autocorrelation, and skewness can predict non-linear case increases, but that the predictive ability of these tools varies between waves based upon the degree of critical slowing down present. Our work suggests that in highly monitored disease time series such as COVID-19, EWSs offer the opportunity for policy makers to improve the accuracy of urgent intervention decisions but best characterise hypothesised critical transitions. Dataset The deposited dataset contains scripts used in the early warning signal and generalised additive model analysis, the generation of figures, and the custom R functions underpinning the work. Raw COVID-19 case data is also provided if users prefer to access files directly rather than sourcing from the host repositories (all credit is provided to the original publishers).

openother-openOct 2021View details →

opencc-zeroJul 2023View details →

Data from: Variation in the strength of female mate preference for male size supports the signal reliability hypothesis

Both sexually selected traits and mate preferences for these traits can be condition dependent, yet how variation in preferred traits could select for condition dependent preferences has rarely been examined. The signal reliability hypothesis predicts that mate preferences vary across environments in relation to the reliability of the information preferred traits provide in those environments. Extensive variation in copy number of the mc4r gene on Y chromosome is correlated with adult male size in Xiphophorus multilineatus, when males stop growing. This genetic variation allowed us to use a split-sibling design to show that male size is more variable, and thus likely to provide reliable information about male genotype, when males were reared in a warm as compared to cold environment. Females reared in the warm environment had stronger mate preferences for male size. Understanding how the reliability of male traits can select for conditional variation in the strength of the female mate preferences will further our discovery of adaptive mate preferences. For example, the relationship between the strength of a female's mate preference and their growth rates supports previous work hypothesizing disassortative mating in relation to growth rates to mitigate a documented growth-mortality tradeoff in this species.

publicNov 2023View details →

Data from: Strength of female mate preferences in temperature manipulation study supports the signal reliability hypothesis

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publicAug 2017View details →

Data from: Females can solve the problem of low signal reliability by assessing multiple male traits

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opencc-zeroOct 2020View details →

Code for: Threshold assessment, categorical perception, and the evolution of reliable signaling

Animals often use assessment signals to communicate information about their quality to a variety of receivers, including potential mates, competitors, and predators. But what maintains reliable signaling and prevents signalers from signaling a better quality than they actually have? Previous work has shown that reliable signaling can be maintained if signalers pay fitness costs for signaling at different intensities and these costs are greater for lower quality individuals than higher quality ones. Models supporting this idea typically assume that continuous variation in signal intensity is perceived as such by receivers. In many organisms, however, receivers have threshold responses to signals, in which they respond to a signal if it is above a threshold value and do not respond if the signal is below the threshold value. Here, we use both analytical and individual-based models to investigate how such threshold responses affect the reliability of assessment signals. We show that reliable signaling systems can break down when receivers have an invariant threshold response, but reliable signaling can be rescued if there is variation among receivers in the location of their threshold boundary. Our models provide an important step towards understanding signal evolution when receivers have threshold responses to continuous signal variation.

opencc-zeroDec 2014View details →

Data from: Interpopulation variation in a condition-dependent signal: predation regime affects signal intensity and reliability

In many models of sexual selection, conspicuous ornaments are preferred by mates because they indicate heritable signaler viability. To function as indicators, ornaments must exhibit a proportional relationship between expression and viability. In cases where the evolutionary interests of signaler and receiver diverge, selection favors exploitative exaggeration by low-viability individuals producing unreliable signals. Theory suggests that the evolutionary stability of such communication systems requires costs that prevent low-viability males from expressing disproportionately intense signals. Therefore, given ecological variation in signaling cost, the reliability of signaling systems will vary concomitantly. In this study, we assess the effect of a variable signal cost, predation, on signal intensity and reliability among 16 populations of Bahamas mosquitofish (Gambusia hubbsi) that use colorful dorsal fins in courtship displays. We found that fin coloration was more intense in low-predation sites and could be used to predict body condition. However, this predictive relationship was apparent only in populations subject to predation risk. We demonstrate an important role for ecological signaling cost in communication and show that ecological heterogeneity drives interpopulation variation in both the intensity and the reliability of a sexual signal.

opencc-zeroDec 2013View details →

Data from: Do aggressive signals evolve toward higher reliability or lower costs of assessment?

It has been suggested that the evolution of signals must be a wasteful process for the signaller, aimed at the maximization of signal honesty. However, the reliability of communication depends not only on the costs paid by signallers but also on the costs paid by receivers during assessment, and less attention has been given to the interaction between these two types of costs during the evolution of signalling systems. A signaller and receiver may accept some level of signal dishonesty by choosing signals that are cheaper in terms of assessment but that are stabilized with less reliable mechanisms. I studied the potential trade-off between signal reliability and the costs of signal assessment in the corncrake (Crex crex). I found that the birds prefer signals that are less costly regarding assessment rather than more reliable. Despite the fact that the fundamental frequency of calls was a strong predictor of male size, it was ignored by receivers unless they could directly compare signal variants. My data revealed a response advantage of costly signals when comparison between calls differing with fundamental frequencies is fast and straightforward, whereas cheap signalling is preferred in natural conditions. These data might improve our understanding of the influence of receivers on signal design because they support the hypothesis that fully honest signalling systems may be prone to dishonesty based on the effects of receiver costs and be replaced by signals that are cheaper in production and reception but more susceptible to cheating.

publicMar 2015View details →

Data from: Interpopulation variation in a condition-dependent signal: predation regime affects signal intensity and reliability

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publicOct 2020View details →

Code for: Threshold assessment, categorical perception, and the evolution of reliable signaling

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publicSep 2014View details →

Data from: Do aggressive signals evolve toward higher reliability or lower costs of assessment?

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opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Supplementary information for: A biased fossil record can preserve reliable phylogenetic signal

Abstract.––The fossil record is notoriously imperfect and biased in representation, hindering our ability to place fossil specimens into an evolutionary context. For groups with fossil records mostly consisting of disarticulated parts (e.g., vertebrates, echinoderms, plants), the limited morphological information preserved sparks concerns about whether fossils retain reliable evidence of phylogenetic relationships, and lends uncertainty to analyses of diversification, paleobiogeography, and biostratigraphy in Earth history. To address whether a fragmentary past can be trusted, we need to assess whether incompleteness affects the quality of phylogenetic information contained in fossil data. Herein, we characterize skeletal incompleteness bias in a large dataset (6,585 specimens; 14,417 skeletal elements) of fossil squamates (lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians, and mosasaurs). We show that jaws + palatal bones, vertebrae, and ribs appear more frequently in the fossil record than other parts of the skeleton. This incomplete anatomical representation in the fossil record is biased against regions of the skeleton that contain the majority of morphological phylogenetic characters used to assess squamate evolutionary relationships. Despite this bias, parsimony- and model-based comparative analyses indicate that the most frequently-occurring parts of the skeleton in the fossil record retain similar levels of phylogenetic signal as parts of the skeleton that are rarer. These results demonstrate that the biased squamate fossil record contains reliable phylogenetic information, and support our ability to place incomplete fossils in the Tree of Life.

publicJul 2012View details →

Data from: Sex-specific genotype-by-environment interactions for cuticular hydrocarbon expression in decorated crickets, Gryllodes sigillatus: implications for the evolution of signal reliability

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publicMay 2018View details →

Data from: Dressed to impress: breeding plumage as a reliable signal of innate immunity

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