Endocranial volume is variable and heritable, but not related to fitness, in a free-ranging primate
| Autor: | Clare M Kimock, James P. Higham, Abigail E. Colby |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine Male Behavioural ecology Biological anthropology Science Population Longevity Quantitative Trait Loci 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Article 03 medical and health sciences Quantitative Trait Heritable Sex Factors biology.animal Animals Primate education Selection (genetic algorithm) education.field_of_study Multidisciplinary biology Reproduction Anatomic Variation Brain Organ Size Heritability Macaca mulatta Sexual dimorphism 030104 developmental biology Phenotype Evolutionary biology Sample size determination Brain size Trait Medicine Heritable quantitative trait Female Genetic Fitness |
| Zdroj: | Scientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2021) Scientific Reports |
| ISSN: | 2045-2322 |
| Popis: | Large relative brain size is a defining characteristic of the order Primates. Arguably, this can be attributed to selection for behavioral aptitudes linked to a larger brain size. In order for selection of a trait to occur, the trait must vary, that variation must be heritable, and enhance fitness. In this study, we use a quantitative genetic approach to investigate the production and maintenance of variation in endocranial volume in a population of free-ranging rhesus macaques. We measured the endocranial volume and body mass proxies of 542 rhesus macaques from Cayo Santiago. We investigated variation in endocranial volume within and between sexes. Using a genetic pedigree, we estimated heritability of absolute and relative endocranial volume, and selection gradients of both traits as well as estimated body mass in the sample. Within this population, both absolute and relative endocranial volume display variation and sexual dimorphism. Both absolute and relative endocranial volume are highly heritable, but we found no evidence of selection on absolute or relative endocranial volume. These findings suggest that endocranial volume is not undergoing selection, or that we did not detect it because selection is neither linear nor quadratic, or that we lacked sufficient sample sizes to detect it. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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