Abstract
Microstructural data from the skeleton support the hypothesis that primate life histories are centrally regulated by a neuroendocrine rhythm, the Havers‐Halberg Oscillation (HHO). However, subfossil lemurs are outliers in HHO scaling relationships which have been discovered for primates and mammals in general. We present new data to determine whether these species represent the general strepsirrhine condition and to inform general models about neuroendocrine‐mediated life history evolution. We gathered the largest sample of HHO data from histological sections of primate teeth to date, regressing them against life history related variables such as body mass and basal metabolic rate. For all primates, mass and metabolic variables show strong and significant correlations with HHO in line with predictions. However, strepsirrhines do not follow this pattern when examined separately. Therefore, phylogeny may play an unforeseen role in governing how HHOs of specific taxa respond to ecological forces; in the case of the lemurs, which have been subjected to isolated ecologies due to living in Madagascar, these effects seem to have been especially potent. This reinforces the idea that HHO influences life history evolution in response to specific ecological selection regimes. This project was funded by NSF grants BCS‐0622479 (RTH), BCS‐0237338 and BCS‐0503988 (LRG and GTS), and 2010 Max Planck Research Award (TGB).
Highlights
Growth, metabolism, and reproductive physiology all have a role to play in the allocation of resources over individual lifespans, and have all been implicated in multiple explanatory models of life history evolution (e.g. [1,2,3,4,5,6])
We are introducing the term Retzius periodicity (RP) as a synonym and replacement for “periodicity” and “repeat interval” (RI) used by authors in prior studies (e.g., [2,3,14,15,16]) in an attempt to establish a unified terminology; we argue that the prior terms lack specificity and do not sufficiently address the oscillatory nature of Havers-Halberg Oscillation (HHO) physiology, respectively
The most obvious pattern is that anthropoids possess a broad range of mean RP values from 1 to 11 days, whereas strepsirrhines range only between 2 to 4 days
Summary
Metabolism, and reproductive physiology all have a role to play in the allocation of resources over individual lifespans, and have all been implicated in multiple explanatory models of life history evolution (e.g. [1,2,3,4,5,6]). Metabolism, and reproductive physiology all have a role to play in the allocation of resources over individual lifespans, and have all been implicated in multiple explanatory models of life history evolution While many of the effects of ecology on life history have been understood for some time, the manner in which the evolution of physiological systems is coordinated to achieve particular life history outcomes remains unclear. Bromage et al [2,3,7] used histological evidence from primate dental and osseous tissues to PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0134210. To the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in respect of the Hard Tissue Research Program in Human Paleobiomics (TGB). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
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