Sociality of Octodontomys gliroides and other octodontid rodents reflects the influence of phylogeny

Rivera D.S.; Abades S.; Alfaro, F.D.; Ebensperger, L.A.

Abstract

Multiple ecological factors are known to drive variation in social behavior. However, group-living in some species appears to be highly conserved, suggesting a phylogenetic influence. In this study, we evaluated both scenarios using intraspecific and interspecific comparisons across octodontid rodents. We first examined 2 different populations of Andean degu (Octodontomys gliroides), representing 2 extremes of a climate vegetation gradient across the Andes range. We evaluated how ecological variation in terms of abundance and distribution of food resources, predation risk, and burrowing costs predicted interpopulation variation in group size and range-area overlap (2 proxies of sociality). We estimated these measures of sociality from livetrapping and radiotelemetry. We then used phylogenetic methods to determine whether sociality exhibits a phylogenetic signal and reconstructed the ancestral state of sociality across the family Octodontidae. Overall activity of females and males of O. gliroides was greater during nighttime than daytime. Across populations we found significant differences in ecology, including abundance and distribution of food, predation risk, and burrowing costs. However, populations were similar in terms of group size and range-area overlap. The phylogenetic approach revealed a strong and significant phylogenetic signal associated with sociality, where this behavior was present early during the evolution of octodontid rodents. Together, these findings imply that sociality of O. gliroides is not linked to current population differences in ecology.

Más información

Título según WOS: Sociality of Octodontomys gliroides and other octodontid rodents reflects the influence of phylogeny
Título según SCOPUS: Sociality of Octodontomys gliroides and other octodontid rodents reflects the influence of phylogeny
Título de la Revista: JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
Volumen: 95
Número: 5
Editorial: OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC
Fecha de publicación: 2014
Página de inicio: 968
Página final: 980
Idioma: English
DOI:

10.1644/14-MAMM-A-057

Notas: ISI, SCOPUS