Social Biology: Questions For Research after Sutherland WJ et al. (2013) [Clara B. Jones]

Social Biology: Questions for research based upon Sutherland WJ et al. (2013) Identification of 100 fundamental ecological questions. J Ecology 101, 58-67. This list is not intended as a substitute for the original questions nor does it represent an exhaustive treatment of the ways that the original list can be interpolated, interpreted, or used by Social Biologists and Behavioral Ecologists. The following list interpolates questions primarily related to individual and population levels of analysis, with some questions, additionally, pertaining to Community and Ecosystem levels. However, researchers are encouraged to interpolate other questions in the original list, e.g., those devoted to Disease Ecology. As well, important methodological questions relevant to Social Biology and Behavioral Ecology are presented in the original paper. Overall, the fundamental “decision rule” is to interpret and interpolate questions as they may pertain to Social Biology as per all levels and features of group-living taxa. Clearly, questions might be interpolated relative to "Behavior" per se for broad treatment by Behavioral Ecologists.  Submitted by Clara B. Jones: @cbjones1943 [Twitter]

• What are the evolutionary consequences of group-living populations becoming less connected through fragmentation?
• How local is adaptation in group-living populations?
• For group-living taxa, what are the ecological causes and consequences of epigenetic variation?
• For group-living taxa, what are the relative contributions of different levels of selection (gene, individual, group) to life-history evolution and the resulting population dynamics?
• What selective forces cause sex differences in life-history and what are their consequences for population dynamics of group-living taxa?
• How do the strength and form of density-dependence influence feedbacks between population dynamics and life-history evolution of group-living taxa?
• How does phenotypic plasticity influence evolutionary trajectories of social traits?
• How variable are social traits across taxa?
• What are the genetic and physiological bases of life-history tradeoffs in group-living taxa?
• What are the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms governing range margins of group-living populations?
• How can we upscale detailed processes at the level of individuals into patterns at the population scale in group-living taxa?
• What are the heritability/genetic bases of dispersal and movement behavior[s] in group-living taxa?
• How do group-living organisms make movement decisions in relation to dispersal, migration, foraging, or mate search?
• For group-living taxa, do different demographic rates vary predictably over different spatial scales, and how do they then combine to influence spatio-temporal population dynamics?
• For group-living taxa, how does demographic and spatial structure modify the effects of environmental stochasticity on population dynamics?
• For group-living taxa, how do environmental stochasticity and environmental change interact with density-dependence to generate population dynamics and distributions?
• For group-living taxa, to what degree do trans-generational effects on life histories, such as maternal effects, impact on population dynamics?
• For group-living taxa, how does covariance among life-history traits affect their contributions to population dynamics?
• What is the relative importance of direct (consumption, competition) vs. indirect (induced behavioral change) interactions in determining the effect of one group-living population upon another?
• For group-living taxa, how important is individual variation to population, community, and ecosystem dynamics?
• For group-living taxa, what demographic traits [genetic, individual, group, population] determine the resilience of natural populations to disturbance and perturbation [“stress”]?
• How well can community properties and responses to environmental change be predicted from the distribution of social traits?
• Thinking of group-living taxa, how do social traits influence ecological network structure?
• How many group-living taxa can coexist in a given area?
• Thinking of group-living taxa, how do resource pulses affect resource use and interactions between individuals and groups?
• How important are group-living taxa in the functioning of ecological communities?
• Thinking of group-living taxa, which taxa are most sensitive to to changes in community composition?
• What are the relative contributions of [different levels of] group-living taxa to biodiversity and ecosystem functioning?
• Thinking of group-living taxa, how does nutrient input and output affect productivity in ecosystems?
• Which, if any, group-living taxa are functionally redundant in the context of stochastic or directional environmental changes?
• What unexploited theories used by other disciplines could inform Social Biology and Behavioral Ecology?

What Is "Behavioral Ecology"?: A White Paper (by Clara B. Jones, 12/28/2017)

What Is "Behavioral Ecology"? A White Paper (by Clara B. Jones, 12/28/2017) 

Definition of Behavioral Ecology: Variations in behavior relative to ecological [economic] factors, in particular, spatial & temporal dispersion [distribution & abundance] of limiting resources; Ways in which Dispersion [Distribution & Abundance in Time & Space] of organisms "maps" onto Dispersion of limiting resources [in T & S in a given population]--the [John Hurrel] Crook-ian Model of Behavioral Ecology [Behaviour Supplement X, 1964]...limited by energetics x sex [on average & ceteris paribus]--males expected to be Time-Minimizers, females expected to be Energy-Maximizers

FIRST PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY:: E[nergy]: Acquisition->Consumption->Allocation====> Worker &/or Reproductive &/or Dependent...(Males, T[ime] Minimizers; Females, E[nergy] Maximizers)

The organizing principle of this White Paper is that "Behavioral Ecology" is a sub-field of Ecology, not a sub-field of Animal Behavior, Comparative Psychology, Ethology, or Anthropology.

As such, Behavioral Ecologists will study behavioral, including, social*, traits as they operate/function at population, community, and ecosystem levels, incorporating concerns for scale, mechanisms, development, tradeoffs, mediating factors, and filtering, among other related issues.

Students of Behavioral Ecology will demonstrate an awareness of the roots of their field, including, but, not limited to, the early work of John Eisenberg, John Hurrell Crook, Stephen Emlen, Jack Bradbury, and Sandy Vehrencamp.

Many of the traits of interest to Behavioral Ecologists will be genetically correlated; thus, genetic and genomic studies will be employed to identify genes, gene complexes, and/or circuits underlying behavioral, including, social*, traits--relative to abiotic and biotic environmental factors and interactions.

The journal, Behavioral Ecology, will be viewed as an Ecology journal on par with the journals, Functional Ecology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Ecology and Evolution, and Journal of Applied Animal Ecology.

Behavioral Ecology will reflect the intimate links between Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EcoEvo)**.

Behavioral Ecology will become a predictive discipline, not only a project of descriptive work. As such, a truly predictive Behavioral Ecology will be a hypothetico-deductive enterprise based on First Principles.

Like its parent discipline, Ecology, Behavioral Ecology methodology will incorporate modeling and simulation, as well as, field and laboratory experiments and will investigate tradeoffs and alternative hypotheses. Practitioners can conduct experiments with agent-based [individual-based] methods.

Behavioral Ecologists will be trained by Ecologists and Evolutionary Biologists (EcoEvo) from Departments of Ecology and Evolution and, in addition, will study Ethology, Animal Behavior, & Population Genetics.

Behavioral Ecology will be characterized by strong theory, and students will be trained in quantitative methods, at minimum, statistics, biostatistics, coding, calculus, agent-based [individual-based] modeling. Higher-order quantitative skills might incorporate Fisher's Fundamental Equation, the Price Equation, inclusive fitness ("kin selection") & Hamilton's Rule, as well as, the Nash Equilibrium. As in other sub-fields of Ecology, theory will take the form of Mathematics, though verbal formulations will often be a preliminary step. Marshall's book, Social Evolution and Inclusive-Fitness Theory, might be incorporated into any graduate student's program:

https://www.amazon.com/Social-Evolution-Inclusive-Fitness-Theory/dp/0691161569/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=james+marshall+social+biology&qid=1558917758&s=books&sr=1-1-catcorr

The practitioner of Behavioral Ecology will study virtually any topic investigated by other Ecologists. A good exercise is to peruse the contents of the journals mentioned above, interpolating and/or reframing most any paper into a study of Behavioral Ecology, including, Social* Biology. Once the practitioner gets the knack of doing this, s/he/they can advance to other topics generated by books such as The Princeton Guide To Ecology or any good Ecology textbook. In 2013, the British Ecological Society identified "100 fundamental questions in Ecology" that can be re-framed as questions for research in Behavioral Ecology and Social Biology: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1365-2745.12025

Behavioral Ecology will include a new sub-field, Applied Behavioral Ecology, that may be of particular interest to students of Human Behavior and Conservation Biology.***

Behavioral Ecology will embrace a new sub-field, Behavioral MacroEcology, that will, in part, investigate ecosystem, regional, and global patterns of diversity in Behavioral Ecological factors and traits (including Sociobiological* factors and traits) and that may require assembly of large databases (as per a new sub-field, Computational Behavioral Ecology).

Behavioral Ecology will be an active special interest group of ESA****.

*Group-formation, Group-maintenance, Group-living, Intraspecific/Interspecific interactions, Cooperative and/or Altruistic traits, Facilitation, and Co-existence. Intraindividual traits ["behavioral syndromes"] will be studied as they may influence group and/or population effects.

**"...tending, in the course of generations, to modify organic structures in accordance with external circumstances, as food, the nature of the habitat, and the meteoric agencies...." Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, 1861 (3rd Edition)

***See, for example, Palkovacs EP, Moritsch MM, Contolini GM, Pelletier F (2018) Ecology of harvest-driven trait changes and implications for ecosystem management. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 16(1): 20-28, doi: 10.1002/fee.1743

****An organism's use of energy (E) is the essence of Behavioral ECOLOGY [1st Principles of Ecology= Acquisition, Consumption, Allocation (e.g., to Behavior]. Similarly, a group-living organism's use of energy (E) is the essence of Social Biology [a sub-field of Behavioral ECOLOGY]. All Behaviors [action patterns, motor patterns] are a function of the laws of thermodynamics.

Primary Citation: John Hurrel Crook, Behaviour. Supplement No. 10, The Evolution of Social Organisation and Visual Communication in the Weaver Birds (Ploceine) (1964)

Towards Assembling a Global Data M & M Archive for Terrestrial Mammals

To: The Ecology Community

From: Clara B. Jones (Director, Mammals and Phenogroups, MaPs, Asheville, NC)

Re: Towards Assembling a Global Data Archive of Morbidity and Mortality Events for Terrestrial Mammals

Date: 1/27/13

The purpose of this letter is to highlight a need for, and rationales for, assembling an “international repository” of Morbidity and Mortality (M and M) data for animals in the wild.  Terrestrial mammals are emphasized (Ameca y Juárez et al., 2012) because of their overwhelming dominance among terrestrial vertebrates and because, Homo sapiens, the species responsible for inducing and escalating recent deleterious effects on global biogeochemistry, is a member of Class, Mammalia.  A “multi-metric index” of M and M data requires a bioinformatic, quantitative approach yielding systematic storage, classification, and integration of information, permitting “knowledge management”, directed search, as well as analysis.  Nested bioinformatics designs are sensitive to scale, permitting weighted input of data from individual to ecosystem levels.  Knowledge of mortality patterns, assessed relative to other storable data (e.g., age-sex structure of populations, co-varying spatiotemporal, including, environmental, factors) would provide researchers and their collaborators a powerful source of information for evaluating ramifications of anthropogenic stressors for mammalian populations.

The proposed archive would serve as a “global information grid” of mortality events associated with local, regional, and global environmental regimes.  In addition to serving as a repository of data, the archive’s capacities for multi-dimensional mapping of variations in age, size, development, physiology, and genetics would permit a more comprehensive understanding of life-history* evolution and shifting mean fitness of populations in community and ecosystem contexts, with the potential to generate novel qualitative and quantitative perspectives on questions of critical import to conservation biology, ecology, and evolutionary biology.  Among other concerns to conservation biologists and their colleagues, a “global information grid” of M and M data for terrestrial mammals would address Woodroffe’s (1999) call for systematic approaches to dissection, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases in wild mammal populations.

Zipkin et al. (2010) published a population modeling technique bounded by logic interpretable by any researcher familiar with the conceptual framework and methods of statistical probability.  These authors provided a “primer” on the use of “Markov chains” for studies of disease dynamics in natural populations of animals.  Utilizing “typical” survey records of morbidity and mortality events, Markov chains estimate probabilities “of state [event, condition] transitions between consecutive time steps [spatial or temporal intervals]”.  This approach to quantitative ecology is a type of “epidemiological modeling” amenable to multilevel (hierarchical) modeling (Qian & Shen, 2007), whereby, for instance, M & M at the individual or population level could be quantitatively assessed with associated metrics at the same (limiting resource dispersions), lower (soil gradients, leaf litter dispersion) or higher (interspecific assemblages, variations in nutrient cycling) levels of abiotic and biotic organization..            

A facultative search of “disease, mammals” in seven widely-read American and British journals publishing a significant number of papers on basic ecology and conservation biology was conducted.  Several patterns were apparent.  First, though length of time since publication of first issues varied across journals and while “search” applications are probably structured differently, numbers of papers on topics related to mammalian disease indicated relative emphasis, as follows: Conservation Biology, 494 papers; Ecology, 418; Functional Ecology, 102; International Journal of Primatology, 230; Journal of Applied Ecology, 175; Journal of Ecology, 1; Journal of Mammalogy, 355; and, Oikos, 207.  Most articles addressing mammalian diseases focused on one type of disease (e.g., rabies, Lyme’s disease), on one category of pathology in a single or among related species (e.g., intestinal parasites) or, on parasite-host associations.  Most of the studies investigated disease effects at the population-level rather than epidemiological patterns across time and space from the individual to higher levels.  Specialized  wildlife biology and veterinary medicine journals, as well as, comprehensive texts and field manuals covering “ecology of pests and pathogens” or “field procedures for the study of diseases” address M and M of animals in Nature, as well.  My impression is that, among vertebrates, birds and bats have been studied more thoroughly than terrestrial mammals.     

Table 1 summarizes opportunistic observations of pathologies observed for 156 immobilized adult male and female mantled howler monkeys in Costa Rica.  Males were more likely to exhibit pathologies (25/36= 69%) compared to females (50/120= 42%), possible byproducts of risks from male-male competition and time- rather than energy-maximization (see, for example, Jones, 2005).  Considering the population as a whole, 51%  (80/156) of individuals in the sample exhibited obvious abnormalities.  Table 1 highlights the broad array of pathologies affecting individual mammals, suggesting that many field studies of M and M may be limited by their focus on one causative factor.  Several seemingly minor anomalies may, cumulatively, induce sub-lethal or lethal stress at one or more interacting, systemic levels, from biochemical (genetic, protein, e.g., de novo mutation) to physiological and developmental (e.g., sustained production of cortisol, increased infant mortality) to exposed phenotype (e.g., melanoma, bots), including, behavior (e.g., compromised defensive capacities, change [++, --] in baseline [presumably, optimal] interaction rates). 

The “collective intelligence” available to researchers and their collaborators from the proposed archive would facilitate multilevel epidemiological studies sensitive to variations in anthropogenic effects, including, capacities for local, regional, or global forecasting.  The proposed M and M archive would facilitate capabilities to deposit, assemble, process, share, manage, and diagnose its “multi-metric indices” for hypothesis-testing and effective conservation management in basic and applied ecology. 


*Drew Purves [Microsoft, UK] and his colleagues are working on a global model of body size x longevity [D. Purves, personal communication], part of a global ecosystem modeling project. The M and M archive proposed in the present blogpost would permit global modeling of [terrestrial mammal] female body size [FBS] x mortality or FBS x survivorship, based on the largest possible sample of life history data available.  Interpreting the logic of Purves' program and applying the presumed logic to the M and M archive advanced herein, the "international repository" of M and M data could be modeled for a comprehensive, general, statement of Life History phenomena, including, partitioning of its variability, using the simplifying proxy that variations in female body size [FBS] x mortality and/or FBS x survivorship relationships are governed by the same rules [1] within- and between-taxa, and [2] within- and across-levels of bioenergetic  and biogeochemical organization [scales and gradients].  Ideally, one would substitute a sufficiently-large sample of female age distributions [FAD] x mortality x environment [climate] and/or FAD x survivorship x environment [climate] for a synthesis of Life History trajectories sensitive to local and regional conditions. 

Acknowledgments: I am grateful to Norman J. Scott, Jr. (USFW, ret.) for making his raw data available to me. 

References

Ameca y Juárez, E.I., Mace, G.M., Cowlishaw, G., and Pettorelli, N. 2012. Natural population die-offs: causes and consequences for terrestrial mammals. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 27: 272-277.

Jones, C.B. 2005. Behavioral Flexibility in Primates: Causes and Consequences. Springer, New York.

Qian, S.S., and Shen, Z. 2007. Ecological applications of multilevel ANOVA. Ecology 88: 2489-2495.

Woodroffe, R. 1999. Managing disease threats to wild animals. Animal Conservation 2: 185-193.

Zipkin, E.F., Jennelle, C.S., and Cooch, E.G. 2010. A primer on the application of Markov Chains to the study of wildlife disease dynamics. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 1: 192-198.

Table

Table 1. Pathologies recorded opportunistically during immobilization of individually-marked and aged mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata palliata) at Hacienda La Pacífica, Cañas, Costa Rica, tropical dry forest habitats (riparian and deciduous).  Data were collected in 1976 by Norman J. Scott, Jr. (USFW, ret.) and his assistants, including the present author.  (N= 156: n=  120 females,  n= 36 males)

PATHOLOGY	TYPE-CHARACTER	#FEMALES	#MALES	SUB-TOTAL	TOTAL
APPARENT GENETIC ABMORMALITIES	Hirsuteness			5	5
PARASITES	Botfly Larvae	2	1	3	3
	Roundworms	11	5	16	16
	Tick	1		1	1
INFECTIONS	Herpes-like	2	0	2	2
	Lymphodenopathy	2	1	3	3
	Undiagnosed	2	1	3	3
SCABS	Fungus?, Eczema?, Herpes?	9	0	9	9
TESTICULAR ABNORMALITIES	?		2	2	2
APPARENT NUTRIENT DEFICIENCY	?	9	1	10	10
SCARS	?	5	8	13	13
BROKEN BONES	?	7	6	13	13
TOTAL		50	25	80	80

Clara B. Jones: Brief CV

CLARA B. JONES, Independent Researcher [DOB: 8/12/1943-]: Brief CV [1970s-present]: h-index, 22; i-10 index, 43 as of April 2024 ...

Contact: foucault03@gmail.com, mapcbj@gmail.com 

Cell: 828-279-4429

Science Blog: http://vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com 

Twitter [Social Biology, Behavioral Ecology]: http://twitter.com/cbjones1943 

Google Scholar Profile Page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=zL1l-FUAAAAJ

Amazon Author’s Page:  http://www.amazon.com/Clara-B.-Jones/e/B001K9037K

Training, Research, Employment [selected]:

Cornell University Ph.D. Biopsychology 1978 [Dissertation Advisors: William C. Dilger: birds, Ethology; Ruth E. Buskirk: spiders, primates, Behavioral Ecology]

Harvard University Postdoctoral Fellow in Population Genetics 1981-1982 [Richard C. Lewontin]

Independent Researcher [including field research in Latin America 1973-2007 (plants; especially, animals): Costa Rica, Panama, Belize, Mexico, Colombia (Colombian Amazon, Rio Negro, squirrel monkey, Saimiri sciurius; Isla San Andres, Colombia--fish, blenny, Entomacrodus nigricans)]

Community Conservation, Inc., USA, Associate 1997-2007 [Rob Horwich]

Organization for Tropical Studies [OTS], Course # 1973-2, Costa Rica; San Andres Island, Colombia

Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology; Seewiesen, Bavaria 1981 [Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt]

American Museum of Natural History, NYC, Visiting Scientist, Mammals 1985-1986: Pleistocene forest refuges, Africa, Primates [Sydney Anderson]

Rutgers University, NJ, Institute of Animal Behavior, Visiting Faculty 1991-1996

Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz, Mexico, Visiting Scientist 1996 [Ernesto Rodriguez-Luna]

Jackson (MS) State University, Department of Psychology, Visiting Scientist 2002 [Sheree Watson]


National Evolutionary Synthesis Center [NESCent], Visiting Scholar 2005, 2006

Additional Coursework: Environmental Sciences [M.A. Program, Montclair State (NJ) University, not completed: Harbans Singh]; GIS [M.A. Program, U-MD College Park, not completed: Derek Thompson]

Doctoral Committee: Biological Psychology: [Ethology: William C. Dilger, birds (Department of Neurobiology & Behavior); Behavioral Ecology: Ruth E. Buskirk, spiders, primates (Department of Neurobiology & Behavior); Social Psychology: Stephen C. Jones, humans (Department of Psychology)]

Current Research Interests: Animal Behavior; Behavioral Ecology [cf. John Hurrell Crook, 1964]; Social Biology [especially, Social Evolution: Major Transitions Approach, especially, Mammals, including, Humans]; Thermal Biology [Metabolic Theory]; Hystricognaths; Bathyergidae [African mole-rats]; Evolution of Interdependence; Evolution of Cooperation; Evolution of Division-of-Labor; General Principles, especially, Hamilton's Rule [rb - c>0 -----> rb>c]

Taxa studied: Tropical Plants [Botany Mentor, Harlan Banks, Cornell University]: Fieldwork  Pithecellobium saman, Andira inermis; bracken fern [Dennstaedtiaceae spp.]; Tabebuia neocrysantha [Bignoniaceae]; xaté [Chamaedorea spp.]; Animals, Fieldwork Published: Fish [Entomacrodus nigricans]; Mammals [including, humans]; particularly, howler monkeys, Alouatta spp. [Alouatta palliata, 3 sub-spp.; also, A. pigra, A. caraya]; Fieldwork  Unpublished: spiders, vultures, dung beetles; Laboratory Unpublished: albino [Norway] rats; Madagascar cockroaches; planaria; Fieldwork  Unpublished: vultures; scorpions; dung beetles

Publications: > 100, including, scientific articles and book chapters; 9 books [including, five conventionally-published books (2 of these edited volumes--one of these with co-author & the other singly-authored); two self-published books; one self-published monograph; one self-published blogpost--self-published texts available at lulu dot com]; 2 special Issues [1 issue comprised of 2 issues]; book reviews; technical reports; newsletter; and newspaper articles


Primary influences: Sydney Anderson, Harlan Banks, Irwin Bernstein, Andrew Bourke, Jack Bradbury, Bernie Crespi, William C. Dilger, Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, John F. Eisenberg, Stephen T.  Emlen, "Griff" Ewer, Steven A. Frank, Masao Kawai, Harry Levin, Richard C. Lewontin, Jasper Loftus-Hills, Martin Moynihan, Gene E. Robinson, M.E.P. Seligman, Norman J. Scott, Jr., Robert L. Trivers, Sandy Vehrencamp, Frederick O. Waage, Stuart A. West, Mary Jane West-Eberhard

Books

1.      Jones CB [ed] [2003] Sexual selection and reproductive competition in primates: new perspectives and directions. American Society of Primatologists, Norman, OK

2.      Jones CB [2005] Behavioral flexibility in primates: causes and consequences. Springer, New York

3.      Hager R Jones CB [eds] [2009] Reproductive skew in vertebrates: proximate and ultimate causes. Cambridge University Press, New York

4.      Jones CB [2012] Robustness, plasticity, and evolvability in mammals: a thermal niche approach. Springer, New York

5. Jones CB [2014] The evolution of mammalian sociality in an ecological perspective. Springer Brief, Springer, New York

6. Jones CB [2020] Female mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata

palliata: Primates, Atelidae) life-history strategies—a “major transitions” 

approach to mammalian social evolution. Lulu dot com. [self-published]

7. Jones CB [2021] A mechanistic approach to studying mammalian populations. lulu dot com. [self-published] ... book highlights "social parasitism" & includes a simple mathematical model, pp 44-46:

https://www.lulu.com/shop/clara-b-jones/a-mechanistic-approach-to-studying-mammalian-populations/paperback/product-8dnw7q.html?q=clara+b.+jones&page=1&pageSize=4

Special Issues

1.      Jones CB [ed] [2001] Sampling Neotropical primates: implications for conservation and socioecology. Primate Report 61: 3-71

2.      Jones CB [ed] [2003] Primate dispersal: proximate and ultimate causes and consequences [Part 1]. Primate Report 67: 3-98

3.      Jones CB [ed] [2004]. Primate dispersal: proximate and ultimate causes and consequences [Part 2]. Primate Report 68: 3-95


Other [Selected] Publications

Horwich R et al. [2012] Community conservation. In: Moutinho P (ed), Deforestation around the world [Ch 14], pp 283-318. InTechOpen.com

http://www.communityconservation.org/publications/InTech-Preserving_biodiversity_and_ecosystems_catalyzing_conservation_contagion.pdf

Jones CB [2013] Seasonal tropical forests. In Horwath RW [ed], pp 163-168. Biomes and ecosystems. Ipswich, MA, Salem Press

Jones CB [2013] Sub-tropical forest biome. In Horwath RW [ed], pp 142-148. Biomes and ecosystems. Ipswich, MA, Salem Press

Book Review: Trivers RL [2015], Wild Life, Biosocial Research, NJ; International Society of Behavioral Ecology Newsletter 28-1, Spring/Summer 2016

Book Review: Ebensperger LA & Hayes LD [2016], Sociobiology of Caviomorph Rodents, Wiley-Blackwell; Koenig WD, Dickinson JL [2016], Cooperative Breeding in Vertebrates, CUP; ISBE Newsletter 28-2, Fall/Winter 2016

Book Review: Clutton-Brock T [2017], Mammal Societies, Wiley-Blackwell; ISBE Newsletter 29-1, Spring/Summer 2017

      Book Review: Wilson EO [2018] Genesis. 

        https://vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com/2019/04/review-of-eo-wilsons-new-book-genesis.html

    NOTE: Jones CB (2022) A Note Concerning Constraints on Speciation and the Monospecific Status of Genus: Homo, Emphasizing Environmental Potential and the Role of Gene Flow Among Nomadic Hunter-Gatherers, Facilitated by Behavioral Flexibility and Phenotypic Diversity, Including, Cultural Innovations; lulu dot com

Videos

1. Terminology in Social Biology (2016) YouTube ~6 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0cMyWzB33o&feature=youtu.be

2, Are Humans Co[-]operative Breeders (2016) You Tube ~6 min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvz3D3sKlJ8

3. Clara B. Jones reading part of book on Naked Mole-Rats (2018); YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5xlRHmKB84

    4. Mammal Social Evolution

Current project

Social Evolution: Major Transitions Approach, especially, Mammals [see 1st blogpost of this blog; available in hard copy at lulu dot com] 

Selected Scientific Contributions:

1.      First systematic utilization of “Focal” data-collection technique employing randomized [1 randomly-selected focal subject/d] baseline using physical lab data sheets [10-columns, min x min recording]; all publications for aged and marked Costa Rican Mantled howler Monkeys**, Alouatta palliata palliata, and Riverbanks Zoo Black [now, Black and Gold] howler monkeys, A. caraya; Costa Rican Mantled Howler Monkeys studied in Tropical Dry Forest habitats, Canas, CR in 2 habitats, drier, Deciduous habitat (Group 12) & wetter, Riparian habitat (Group 5) [Behavioral Ecology]; Dissertation research carried out studying 1 species in two habitats, the first or among the first such research designs in Primatology [Behavioral Ecology]

2.       First systematic utilization of Radio-telemetry*** [AVM receiving equipment w hand-held antenna; lab-made transmitter attached to one adult female] in field primate studies; all publications for Costa Rican mantled howler monkeys, A.  p. palliata, in Deciduous Habitat


http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/news/cons/COMBELEN.html



3.  Devised fist systematic qualitative system [visual inspection] to determine estrus stages in howler monkeys [in primates?: 3 stages based on differential tissue color & presence/absence of vaginal secretions [A. p. palliata]





http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02382013



4.   3rd field translocation experiment (1976) utilizing primates as subjects [published (A. p. palliata]; see, also,  Kawai M(asao) [1960] Primates 2: 181-255 and Sugiyama Y(ukimaru) [1966] Primates 7: 41-72.]*****


http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02381443

5.       Systematized and implemented “focal-tree” data-collection method (published: Brenesia; blogpost @ vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com)****

6.       Principal descriptions of "age-reversed” ["age-inversed"] dominance system in 3 Alouatta [howler monkey] species: A. palliata [3 subspecies: 1978 (dissertation), 1980], A. caraya, A. pigra*****; published: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02390468 

Bioaccumulation: my new hypothesis for the evolution of the "age-reversed" ["age-inversed"] dominance system [2nd blogpost in this blog]; i think this H could be easily tested in the field ...

7.       Conducted first systematic [field] experimental manipulation of primate herbivore-plant interactions, A. p. palliata [blogpost @ vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com]


8.   Conducted opportunistic field experiments using Costa Rican mantled howler monkeys [blogpost @ vertebratesocialbehavior.blogspot.com]

9.    First [only?] systematic use in primates of “Vehrencamp’s RRS Method” to calculate “relative reproductive success” [RRS] devised by Sandra L. Vehrencamp [University of CA, San Diego, communication, mid-1970s, in Costa Rica]; published in Neotropical Primates

10.   Demonstrated “displacement coalitions” by male and female mantled howler monkeys; published Jones CB 1980, Primates ... these apparently coordinated displacements appeared to be opportunistic rather than collaborations or alliances ...

11. First quantitative modeling of climate time-series "mapped" onto primate population life table to demonstrate "fine-grained" conditions: Jones CB [1997] Life-history patterns of howler monkeys in a time-varying environment. Boletin Primatologico Latinoamericano 6: 1-8


12. Demonstrated correlation between folivority and capacities for colonization [Belizean black howler monkeys, Alouatta pigra] and frugivory and minimal capacities for colonization [Central Americal (Belize) spider monkeys, Ateles geoffroyi] due to even spatiotemporal dispersions of leaves, clumped spatiotemporal dispersions of most fruit species [Jones & Jost 2007, Laboratory Primate Newsletter]******.


13. Preliminary demonstration of "temporal division-of-labor" [TDL] in a primate: Jones CB [1996] Temporal division of labor in a primate: age-dependent foraging behavior. Neotropical Primates 4: 50-53

http://www.primate-sg.org/storage/PDF/NP4.2.pdf

Monograph, Female mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata palliata, Primates, Atelidae) life-history strategies--a major transitions approach, 122 pp, lulu.com ... also, PDF available linked to Profile of my Twitter feed, @cbjones1943 [see Abstract below] ...

14. Began to compare social mammals [primates] and social insects in Jones CB 1980 Primates; e.g*


http://www.redalyc.org/pdf/457/45712103.pdf

15. Publications on "behavioral flexibility" & "phenotypic plasticity"

16. Using a verbal model, synthesized Hamilton's Rule, Competition Theory, and Coexistence Theory [Jones CB (2014) Springer, Chapter 2]

17. Probably the 1st to apply a Major Transitions Approach to mammalian social evolution [see 1st blogpost of this blog].

 

18. "Temporal division of labor" ["age polyethism"] in a mammal: Female mantled howler monkey [Alouatta palliata palliata: Primates, Atelidae] life-history strategies--a "Major Transitions" approach to mammalian social evolution [2020] ... available in hard copy at lulu dot com; available in PDF format linked to Profile of my Twitter feed, @cbjones1943

ABSTRACT

Arboreal howler monkeys [Alouatta spp.] are wholly herbivorous [“primary

consumers”]. Following earlier work (1978; 1980) on Costa Rican mantled howler

monkeys, Alouatta palliata palliata, located in Tropical Dry Forest, the dominance system is described whereby young adult females [~5-7 y.o.] are dominant to older females, middle-aged females [~7-10 y.o.] and middle-aged to old females [~10-15 y.o.] are dominant to old females [~15+ y.o.]. Importantly, the dominance system is characterized by "temporal division-of-labor" ["age polyethism"] 

whereby adult females, specialized for "social foraging"—a type of within-group “helping” behavior, are graded by age, with the oldest female foragers ["helpers"] engaged in most foraging bouts, younger adult females accounting for less “social foraging” [“helping”]. Adult female life-history parameters were calculated from a population census and shown to correspond to patterns of temporal environmental cycles, in particular, the 6-month [seasonal] pattern of rainfall associated with limiting

food availability. To my knowledge, this is the first demonstration of "temporal division-of-labor" in primates, and the methods are novel. Eusocial mole-rats have been shown to exhibit both “temporal” and “reproductive” division-of-labor [Nigel Bennett, personal communication, 2021]. The present results indicate feedback loops among cyclical rainfall patterns; ephemeral food availability; and, adult females operating in the context of “contest competition” for limiting nutrients from which female life-history traits and the rare “age-reversed” dominance system have emerged. The present study, also, has implications for the evolutionary causes and consequences of cumulative acquisition of information by adult females over time who share a group range.

References

Jones CB (1978) Aspects of reproduction in the mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata Gray). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Jones CB (1980) The functions of status in the mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata Gray): intraspecific competition for group membership in a folivorous Neotropical primate. Primates 21: 389-405.

18. Mammal social behavior and group-living ["social organization" from the perspective of Social Parasitism ... A mechanistic approach to studying mammalian populations [2021] ... available in hard copy at lulu dot com ...

Skill Sets: Reading & conceptualizing 3-D visualization graphs/maps; Writing for publication [empirical research papers, synthetic theoretical/review articles, book chapters, technical monographs [2 Springer Briefs],  notes, newspaper [Salisbury NC] & newsletter articles, book reviews]; Field Research [Methods, Design, & Analysis, especially Invasive Field Experiments]; Animal Immobilization & Translocation [field]; Animal predator-Plant prey Manipulations [field]; Technical Networking; Solution-oriented Problem-solving [including Brainstorming & Negotiation]; Conflict-resolution; Teaching [Undergraduate, Graduate]; Coaching [Solution-focused life tactics and strategies]; Administration [inc. Program Director, Department Head, Division Head]; Reviews of technical papers, chapters, proposals; Private-, NGO-, regional-, community-, & government-entity collaborations related to conservation biology; Development of academic courses [e.g., Genetic Aspects of Behavior]

Footnotes

*Jones CB [2005] Social parasitism in mammals with particular reference to neotropical primates. Mastozoologia Neotropical 12: 19-35

**Animals [Group 5 and Group 12] aged and marked by Norman J. Scott [USFW, retired] and his assistants [including CB Jones]; 2 raw data, 3-ring binders [Group 5: Riparian Habitat; Group 12: Deciduous Habitat] archived via Dr. Todd Vision @ National Evolutionary Synthesis Center [NESCent], Duke University, Durham, NC

***Telemetry equipment provided and 1 adult female ["TC"] fitted with transmitter collar by Scott

****Concept first suggested by Jack W. Bradbury [Cornell University, communication early 1970s], who, also, highlighted the importance of using multiple field assistants systematically recording observations concurrently, an essential procedure for predator-prey experiment

*****with Robin Brockett & Rob Horwich

****** http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/news/cons/COMBELEN.html


******Using mapped survey data [Robert H. Horwich's raw data] of the two species' distributions in Belize [the only non-human primate taxa in Belize]

Photo by Liz Williams www.makemesomeart.com