Good for the group? Explaining apparent group-level adaptation.
The idea that group selection can explain adaptive trait evolution is still controversial. Recent empirical work proposes evidence for group-level adaptation in a social spider, but the findings can also be explained from an individual-level perspective. The challenge remains to identify situations where one can separate group and individual selection.
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94248, 1090GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: i.smallegange@uva.nl.
Isabel M
IM
Smallegange
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, P.O. Box 94248, 1090GE Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: egas@uva.nl.
Martijn
M
Egas
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000374:Aggression / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D010641:Phenotype; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D012919:Social Behavior; D013112:Spiders / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
adaptation; conditional strategy; environmental threshold model; group selection; multilevel selection; social spider