Continued from a few months ago.
"The force of kin selection combined with a bottleneck event creates a gene pool conducive to social phenotypes.
This is a hypothesis worthy of testing.
The model system for this would have to be an organism (probably an animal) with closely aged siblings, parental care, and resource needs that require a division of labor. The model system must also be one that experienced a recent, but dramatic, loss in genetic diversity at the population level. This would be inferred from a recent founders event or signatures of a bottleneck event.
The only systems I can think of are invasive social insects, like Argentine ants, Red Imported Fire ants and Africanized Bees. Interestingly enough, these organisms are also defined by aggressive xenophobia in defense of its social groups. There is another though; the origin of its highly social but aggressive behavior is still debated to this day. That species is Homo sapiens.
I swear, the more I study social insects, the more I think that we are under a sepreme illusion. That illusion is our society, and the species behind it, is unique. Really were are just wierd animals that depend on the stridulations of vocal chords to communicate. ( This, as opposed to the much more efficient of excretatory glands co-opted to produce volatile organic compounds.)"
The microevolutionary events that lead up to the development of highly social behavior is the product of kin selection multiplied due to a genetic bottleneck. As the genetic uniformity of a population increases, natural selection on family groups as a function of the shared alleles.
These events will leave phylogenetic signatures. Eusocial insects have diversified rapidly since their original inception. A clade of eusocial populations will show a high genetic similarity indicative of a genetic bottleneck (e.g. fixation of alleles). Sister clades may show similar diversification patterns, but will be genetically dissimilar compared to the eusocial clade. The eusocial clade will carry this signature, while sister clades that emerged from the ancestral group (before the genetic bottleneck event) will not.
The success of rapidly diversifying social organisms is undermined as the number of reproducing populations increases. The combination of mutation and dissimilar natural selection will unravel the benefits of kin selection if a member of two different populations mate. If this force of kin selection is stronger than the benefit of outcrossing, then there is no selective advantage to prevent these groups from becoming reproductively isolated. Over the course of millions of years, the rapid diversification of social organisms will leave behind a large diaspora of monophyletic, highly social species.
This is a hypothesis worthy of testing.
The model system for this would have to be an organism (probably an animal) with closely aged siblings, parental care, and resource needs that require a division of labor. The model system must also be one that experienced a recent, but dramatic, loss in genetic diversity at the population level. This would be inferred from a recent founders event or signatures of a bottleneck event.
The only systems I can think of are invasive social insects, like Argentine ants, Red Imported Fire ants and Africanized Bees. Interestingly enough, these organisms are also defined by aggressive xenophobia in defense of its social groups. There is another though; the origin of its highly social but aggressive behavior is still debated to this day. That species is Homo sapiens.
I swear, the more I study social insects, the more I think that we are under a sepreme illusion. That illusion is our society, and the species behind it, is unique. Really were are just wierd animals that depend on the stridulations of vocal chords to communicate. ( This, as opposed to the much more efficient of excretatory glands co-opted to produce volatile organic compounds.)"
The microevolutionary events that lead up to the development of highly social behavior is the product of kin selection multiplied due to a genetic bottleneck. As the genetic uniformity of a population increases, natural selection on family groups as a function of the shared alleles.
These events will leave phylogenetic signatures. Eusocial insects have diversified rapidly since their original inception. A clade of eusocial populations will show a high genetic similarity indicative of a genetic bottleneck (e.g. fixation of alleles). Sister clades may show similar diversification patterns, but will be genetically dissimilar compared to the eusocial clade. The eusocial clade will carry this signature, while sister clades that emerged from the ancestral group (before the genetic bottleneck event) will not.
The success of rapidly diversifying social organisms is undermined as the number of reproducing populations increases. The combination of mutation and dissimilar natural selection will unravel the benefits of kin selection if a member of two different populations mate. If this force of kin selection is stronger than the benefit of outcrossing, then there is no selective advantage to prevent these groups from becoming reproductively isolated. Over the course of millions of years, the rapid diversification of social organisms will leave behind a large diaspora of monophyletic, highly social species.