Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Evolution
The legacy of privilege: Social inheritance reverses sex differences in reproductive inequality in spotted hyenas
Published: 2025-12-02
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
Inequalities in reproductive success among females and males shape natural and sexual selec-tion, as well as genetic diversity. A key mechanism influencing reproductive inequality in humans and other animals is the social inheritance of privilege. Using a 29-year dataset spanning eight generations of spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), a species in which social status is maternally inherited, we [...]
Quantifying Energy-Efficient Evolution in Cursorial Avian Archosaurs Through Comparative Torque-Based Hindlimb Modeling
Published: 2025-11-27
Subjects: Evolution, Paleobiology
Understanding the way evolution drives adaptations that “optimize” energy-efficiency in cursorial species provides instrumental insights into both biomechanical and bio-inspired engineering fields. This study quantitatively models the cursorial evolution of energy-efficient locomotion in bird-line archosaurs by comparing the hindlimb mechanics of Deinonychus antirrhopus (extinct theropod) and [...]
Multilevel Selection Shaping Adaptive Social Networks
Published: 2025-11-05
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Human Ecology, Zoology
Understanding how human and non-human animal social networks evolve through emergent properties and feedback mechanisms is essential for explaining their adaptability and persistence. Collective social niche construction refers to the process where individuals, through their interactions, actively shape the social environment, resulting in network structures that influence individual behaviours [...]
An increase in animal diversity was facilitated by ecologically-driven brain complexity throughout the Cambrian
Published: 2025-11-04
Subjects: Developmental Biology, Evolution, Integrative Biology, Life Sciences, Other Genetics and Genomics, Zoology
The Cambrian Explosion is often seen as a singular event requiring an explanation. In fact, it is better represented as a cascade of linked events, each with numerous causes. The iconic middle Cambrian fauna, represented by sites such as the Burgess Shale, is a culmination of several phases of increases in taxonomic diversity and morphological complexity. I focus on an often-overlooked increase [...]
The Thermodynamic Imperative: Evolution as Entropic Resistance through Mergers and Persistence
Published: 2025-11-04
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
This paper presents a unified theory of persistence, presenting the argument that evolution should be reframed as an explanation of entropic resistance rather than reproductive fitness. Through theoretical exposition and case studies across the biological spectrum, I demonstrate that persistence emerges from the capacity to merge through complementarity, integrate functionally, and form [...]
Why do birds use green nest material? A systematic review and meta-analysis of experiments
Published: 2025-10-30
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Many animals construct nests. Nests are often considered extended phenotypes that shape survival and reproduction beyond the builder’s body. Birds are key examples of nest builders, and many add fresh green plant material to their nests. Yet, the adaptive value of this behaviour remains debated. Non-mutually exclusive hypotheses propose roles in courtship signalling, parasite defence, or direct [...]
First Photographic and Video Documentation of the Booted Warbler (Iduna caligata) in Egypt Since Its First Record in 1993
Published: 2025-10-27
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology
The Booted Warbler (Iduna caligata) is a small migratory passerine breeding across Central Asia and wintering mainly in the Indian subcontinent. It is regarded as a rare vagrant in the Middle East and North Africa, with very few confirmed records from Egypt. This study presents the first verified photographic and video documentation of I. caligata in Egypt, recorded on 11 October 2025 at [...]
Complete de novo assembly of Wolbachia endosymbiont of contemporary Drosophila simulans using long-read genome sequencing.
Published: 2025-10-08
Subjects: Evolution, Genomics
We present a contemporary high-quality, complete de novo assembly of Wolbachia pipientis (wRi Merrill 23, CP199298), an alphaproteobacterial endosymbiont of Drosophila simulans. This assembly was generated using long read sequencing of wRi-infected D. simulans embryos collected from the Merrill College at the University of California, Santa Cruz in October 2023.
What fraction of the genomic basis of local adaptation are we missing?
Published: 2025-10-05
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Genetics, Genetics and Genomics, Life Sciences
How will species adapt to changing environments? To what extent does adaptation to previous conditions maintain the variation needed to adapt to future conditions? To answer these kinds of questions, we need to identify locally adaptive alleles and quantify their effects. Theory shows that the architecture of adaptation can depend upon the nature of mutation and on how ecology shapes the [...]
PyTLidar: A Python Package for Tree QSM Modeling from Terrestrial Lidar Data
Published: 2025-09-16
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Evolution, Other Forestry and Forest Sciences
PyTLidar is an open-source Python package that reconstructs 3D tree Quantitative Structure Models (QSM) from Terrestrial Lidar Scanning (TLS) data, providing a user-friendly tool that improves and expands upon the MATLAB-based TreeQSM method. QSMs are used to automate detection and calculation of various topological and volumetric measurements that would normally take great effort to gather in [...]
A standardised framework for classifying estimates of reproductive isolation across the Tree of Life
Published: 2025-09-10
Subjects: Evolution
Understanding reproductive isolation (RI) between lineages is a central goal of speciation research. While the strength of RI has been estimated across a broad range of taxa, synthesising these data remains challenging, partially because we lack a common language for classifying and reporting RI estimates. Here, we present the Reproductive Isolation Ontology (RIO), a structured framework designed [...]
Lateralisation shapes spatial learning in lizards
Published: 2025-08-31
Subjects: Behavior and Ethology, Biology, Evolution, Other Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Spatial memory is fundamental cognitive process that allows animals to navigate and interact with their environment effectively. While extensively studied in mammals and birds, the mechanisms underlying spatial cognition in reptiles remain less understood. In this study, we investigated spatial learning and the potential influence of behavioural lateralisation in the common wall lizard (Podarcis [...]
Frequent shifts in pollination strategy are decoupled from diversification in the terrestrial orchids
Published: 2025-08-27
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Biology, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences, Plant Sciences
Pollinator attraction strategies are central to orchid reproductive biology and have long been hypothesised to accelerate speciation rates, particularly through specialised coevolutionary interactions. However, most macroevolutionary evidence comes from studies of individual genera or tribes, leaving broad-scale patterns unresolved. Here, we reconstruct the evolution of pollination strategy in [...]
Fast evolving flowers drive cactus diversification
Published: 2025-08-22
Subjects: Biodiversity, Bioinformatics, Botany, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Life Sciences
The rise of biodiversity is shaped by variation in diversification rates. Across the Tree of Life, numerous forces are thought to influence these rates, including the evolution of adaptive traits, climate change, and interactions with other organisms. In the flowering plants, a longstanding hypothesis favoured by Darwin suggests that floral evolution is a driving force for plant diversity. [...]
Changes in pollen production, pollen heteromorphism and ovule production with increased selfing in Viola arvensis
Published: 2025-08-21
Subjects: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Plant Biology, Population Biology