Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies
Cetaceans are fully aquatic predatory mammals that have successfully colonized virtually all marine habitats. Their adaptation to these habitats, so radically different from those of their terrestrial ancestors, can give us comparative insights into the evolution of female roles and kinship in mamma...
Published in: | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 2024-06-02T08:04:03+00:00 Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies Rendell, Luke Cantor, Mauricio Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal Mann, Janet Villum Fonden 2019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 374, issue 1780, page 20180066 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 journal-article 2019 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 2024-05-07T14:16:20Z Cetaceans are fully aquatic predatory mammals that have successfully colonized virtually all marine habitats. Their adaptation to these habitats, so radically different from those of their terrestrial ancestors, can give us comparative insights into the evolution of female roles and kinship in mammalian societies. We provide a review of the diversity of such roles across the Cetacea, which are unified by some key and apparently invariable life-history features. Mothers are uniparous, while paternal care is completely absent as far as we currently know. Maternal input is extensive, lasting months to many years. Hence, female reproductive rates are low, every cetacean calf is a significant investment, and offspring care is central to female fitness. Here strategies diverge, especially between toothed and baleen whales, in terms of mother–calf association and related social structures, which range from ephemeral grouping patterns to stable, multi-level, societies in which social groups are strongly organized around female kinship. Some species exhibit social and/or spatial philopatry in both sexes, a rare phenomenon in vertebrates. Communal care can be vital, especially among deep-diving species, and can be supported by female kinship. Female-based sociality, in its diverse forms, is therefore a prevailing feature of cetacean societies. Beyond the key role in offspring survival, it provides the substrate for significant vertical and horizontal cultural transmission, as well as the only definitive non-human examples of menopause. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals’. Article in Journal/Newspaper baleen whales The Royal Society Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 374 1780 20180066 |
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description |
Cetaceans are fully aquatic predatory mammals that have successfully colonized virtually all marine habitats. Their adaptation to these habitats, so radically different from those of their terrestrial ancestors, can give us comparative insights into the evolution of female roles and kinship in mammalian societies. We provide a review of the diversity of such roles across the Cetacea, which are unified by some key and apparently invariable life-history features. Mothers are uniparous, while paternal care is completely absent as far as we currently know. Maternal input is extensive, lasting months to many years. Hence, female reproductive rates are low, every cetacean calf is a significant investment, and offspring care is central to female fitness. Here strategies diverge, especially between toothed and baleen whales, in terms of mother–calf association and related social structures, which range from ephemeral grouping patterns to stable, multi-level, societies in which social groups are strongly organized around female kinship. Some species exhibit social and/or spatial philopatry in both sexes, a rare phenomenon in vertebrates. Communal care can be vital, especially among deep-diving species, and can be supported by female kinship. Female-based sociality, in its diverse forms, is therefore a prevailing feature of cetacean societies. Beyond the key role in offspring survival, it provides the substrate for significant vertical and horizontal cultural transmission, as well as the only definitive non-human examples of menopause. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals’. |
author2 |
Villum Fonden |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rendell, Luke Cantor, Mauricio Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal Mann, Janet |
spellingShingle |
Rendell, Luke Cantor, Mauricio Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal Mann, Janet Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies |
author_facet |
Rendell, Luke Cantor, Mauricio Gero, Shane Whitehead, Hal Mann, Janet |
author_sort |
Rendell, Luke |
title |
Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies |
title_short |
Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies |
title_full |
Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies |
title_fullStr |
Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies |
title_full_unstemmed |
Causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies |
title_sort |
causes and consequences of female centrality in cetacean societies |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 |
genre |
baleen whales |
genre_facet |
baleen whales |
op_source |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 374, issue 1780, page 20180066 ISSN 0962-8436 1471-2970 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0066 |
container_title |
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
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374 |
container_issue |
1780 |
container_start_page |
20180066 |
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