Biology subjects

Maisonneuve, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Maisonneuve, L..

9 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

When to learn from elders or peers: accessibility-knowledge trade-offs explain diversity in age-biased social learning

In many animal species, individuals acquire knowledge from others that enhances their survival and reproduction. However, among the many available cultural exemplars, not all provide reliable information. Consequently, individuals tend to choose their exemplars selectively. One widespread pattern is a preference for older individuals, who may have accumulated valuable knowledge through life. Yet empirical studies also show that individuals frequently learn from age peers, suggesting that copying elders is not universally optimal. The ecological and social conditions that favor learning from elders rather than peers, therefore, remain unclear. Here, we investigate the evolutionary drivers of age-biased exemplar choice in age-structured populations where individuals accumulate knowledge over their lifespan. We develop a continuous-age model that captures the coevolution of exemplar age choice and age-specific investments in social learning, individual learning, and the use of acquired knowledge for energy extraction. We show that selection promotes a progressive shift from social to individual learning and from learning to energy extraction with age. Exemplar age choice evolves through a trade-off between knowledgeable and accessible individuals. Young learners therefore favor relatively young exemplars because they are common and still provide substantial novel knowledge, although older individuals remain more knowledgeable. As individuals age, encountering exemplars with substantially novel knowledge becomes increasingly difficult. Consequently, as they age, individuals are expected to shift toward learning from older individuals, who possess more knowledge. Population, environment, and knowledge characteristics can shift this balance, generating a wide range of strategies from learning primarily from peers to consistently targeting the oldest individuals. In particular, learning from age peers is favored by strong within-cohort interactions, high mortality, or high encounter rates. It is also favored in unstable environments with rapid knowledge loss and when knowledge is easily acquired, transmitted, and is bounded.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

How does stochasticity in learning impact the accumulation of knowledge and the evolution of learning?

Learning is crucial for humans and other animals to acquire knowledge, enhancing survival and reproduction. In particular, individual and social learning allow populations to accumulate knowledge across generations. Here, we examine how stochasticity in the production and social acquisition of knowledge influences the evolution of learning strategies and cumulative knowledge. Using a mathematical model where learning is stochastic, we show that learning stochasticity enhances cumulative knowledge by generating variability in knowledge levels. This allows selection to enhance population knowledge: individuals who acquire more knowledge by chance are more likely to survive and reproduce, and therefore to transmit their knowledge to the next generation. As knowledge accumulates, social learning exemplars tend to possess more of it, favoring greater time investment in social learning. Because social learning provides access to substantially more knowledge when learning is stochastic, selection also favors the evolution of greater investment into learning, at the expense of a fecundity cost. Moreover, when knowledge enhances fecundity but not survival, learning stochasticity favors learning from parents rather than other adults, because learning stochasticity increases uncertainty about exemplar knowledge, making parenthood a cue for possessing fecundity-enhancing knowledge. Finally, when learning occurs predominantly from parents, learning stochasticity itself is favored by selection.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

The 'sexual selection hypothesis' for the origin of aposematism

The evolution of aposematism, in which prey exhibit conspicuous signals indicating the presence of anti-predator defenses, is puzzling. Before predators learn to associate the signal with defense, increased visibility makes the conspicuous prey highly vulnerable to predation. Although several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of aposematism, they often assume that these signals can only be recognized by predators. Yet, many studies show that aposematic signals can also be involved in mate choice. Here, we demonstrate that some aposematic signals may have originally evolved as mating signals driven by sexual selection. In this study, we analyze a mathematical model to explore how sexual selection can drive the evolution of aposematism. We thereby identify key features of this sexual selection hypothesis for the origin of aposematism to be tested with empirical data. Our results show that the evolution of conspicuous signals through sexual selection increases the visibility of prey to predators and thus predation pressure. This, in turn, promotes the evolution of defense mechanisms, ultimately leading to aposematism when predators learn to associate the signal with defense. Additionally, we show that when sexual selection drives the evolution of aposematism, it often results in sexual dimorphism in both signaling and defense traits.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2024

The coevolution of learning schedules and teaching enhances cumulative knowledge and drives a teacher-innovator syndrome

Natural selection shapes how individuals learn and acquire knowledge from their environment. Under the right conditions, this can lead to the evolution of learning schedules--how individuals allocate resources to acquire knowledge throughout their lifespan--that promote the accumulation of knowledge across generations ("cumulative knowledge" or "cumulative culture"). In spite of having been observed across multiple taxa, the role of parental teaching in this evolutionary process remains understudied. Using mathematical modelling, we show that learning schedules and parental teaching coevolve, resulting in greater time spent learning individually and innovating, as well as greater inter-generational transfer of knowledge from parent to offspring. These outcomes together enhance cumulative knowledge. Our analyses further reveal that within populations, selection typically favours an association between teaching and individual learning whereby some individuals innovate and teach within the family ("knowledge producers" with extensive knowledge), while others teach less and learn socially outside of the family ("knowledge scroungers" with less knowledge). Overall, our findings indicate that the coevolution of learning schedules and teaching promotes knowledge accumulation within and between generations, and favours diversity within and between populations in knowledge acquisition, possession and transmission.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2022

How many cues are sexy? Evolution of mate preference towards multiple traits in sympatric species

Mate preferences may target traits (1) enhancing offspring adaptation and (2) reducing heterospecific matings. Because similar selective pressures are acting on traits shared by different sympatric species, preference enhancing offspring adaptation may increase heterospecific mating, in sharp contrast with the classical case of so-called magic traits. Using a mathematical model, we study which and how many traits will be used during mate choice, when preferences for locally adapted traits increase heterospecific mating. In particular, we study the evolution of preference towards an adaptive vs. a neutral trait in sympatric species. We take into account sensory trade-offs which may limit the emergence of preference for several traits. Our model highlights that the evolution of preference towards adaptive vs. neutral traits depends on the selective regimes acting on traits but also on heterospecific interactions. When the costs of heterospecific interactions are high, mate preference is likely to target neutral traits that become a reliable cue limiting heterospecific matings. We show that the evolution of preference towards a neutral trait benefits from a positive feedback loop: the more preference targets the neutral trait, the more it becomes a reliable cue for species recognition. We then reveal the key role of sensory trade-offs and the cost of choosiness favouring the evolution of preferences targeting adaptive traits, rather than traits reducing heterospecific mating. When sensory trade-offs and the cost of choosiness are low, we also show that preferences targeting multiple traits evolve, improving offspring fitness by both transmitting adapted alleles and reducing heterospecific mating. Altogether, our model aims at reconciling good gene and reinforcement models to provide general predictions on the evolution of mate preferences within natural communities. Impact SummaryMate preferences are widespread throughout the animal kingdom and generate powerful selective forces impacting the diversification of traits and species. The evolution of such preferences has been the focus of multiple theoretical and empirical studies and intense scientific debates. The evolution of mate preference (1) enhancing offspring fitness and (2) reducing heterospecific mating have been mostly studied separately, except in the specific case of preference for so-called magic traits that increase both offspring survival and species divergence. However, in many cases, the evolution of traits in sympatric species generates conflicting evolutionary forces acting on preferences. On one hand, enhanced offspring survival promotes preference towards locally adaptive traits and may thus lead to convergent evolution of traits among sympatric species. On the other hand, the evolution of similar traits in sympatric species may generate costly heterospecific sexual interactions promoting preference towards traits that diverge between species. Here, we thus build a general mathematical model to investigate the evolutionary factors determining which and how many traits are targeted by mate choice. We especially determine whether preferences will likely target adaptive vs. neutral traits. Our model highlights that the evolution of preferences for adaptive vs. neutral traits in sympatric species depends on within-species mating opportunities but also on the niche overlap between species, tuning heterospecific interactions. By jointly considering (1) the selection regimes acting on the targeted traits within species, as well as (2) interactions with other species living in sympatry, our theoretical study provides a general framework reconciling these research fields.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Evolutionary origins of sexual dimorphism : Lessons from female-limited mimicry in butterflies.

The striking female-limited mimicry observed in some butterfly species is a text-book example of sexually-dimorphic trait submitted to intense natural selection. Two main evolutionary hypotheses, based on natural and sexual selection respectively, have been proposed. Predation pressure favouring mimicry toward defended species could be higher in females because of their slower flight, and thus overcome developmental constraints favouring the ancestral trait that limits the evolution of mimicry in males but not in females. Alternatively, the evolution of mimicry in males could be limited by females preference for non-mimetic males. However, the evolutionary origin of female preference for non-mimetic males remains unclear. Here, we hypothesise that costly sexual interactions between individuals from distinct sympatric species might intensify because of mimicry, therefore promoting female preference for non-mimetic trait. Using a mathematical model, we compare the evolution of female-limited mimicry when assuming either alternative selective hypotheses. We show that the patterns of divergence of male and female trait from the ancestral traits can differ between these selection regimes. We specifically highlight that divergence in females trait is not a signature of the effect of natural selection. Our results also evidence why female-limited mimicry is more frequently observed in Batesian mimics.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2021

The limits of evolutionary convergence in sympatry: reproductive interference and developmental constraints leading to local diversity in aposematic signals

Mutualistic interactions between defended species represent a striking case of evolutionary convergence in sympatry, driven by the increased protection against predators brought by mimicry in warning traits. However, such convergence is often limited: sympatric defended species frequently display different or imperfectly similar warning traits. The phylogenetic distance between sympatric species may indeed prevent evolution towards the exact same signal. Moreover, warning traits are also involved in mate recognition, so that trait convergence might result in heterospecific courtship and mating. Here, we develop a mathematical model to investigate the strength and direction of evolution of warning trait in defended species with different ancestral traits. Specifically, we determine the effect of phenotypic distances between ancestral trait states of sympatric defended species and of costs of heterospecific sexual interactions on imperfect mimicry and trait divergence. Our analytical results confirm that reproductive interference and historical constraints limit the convergence of warning traits, leading to either complete divergence, or imperfect mimicry. Our model reveals that imperfect mimicry evolves only when ancestral trait values differ between species due to historical constraints and highlights the importance of female and predator discriminations in the evolution of such imperfect mimicry. Our study thus provides new predictions on how reproductive interference interacts with historical constraints and may promote the emergence of novel warning traits, enhancing mimetic diversity.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

Evolution of conspicuousness in defended species involved in Mullerian mimicry

Variation in the conspicuousness of colour patterns is observed within and among defended prey species. The evolution of conspicuous colour pattern in defended species can be strongly impaired because of increased detectability by predators. Nevertheless, such evolution of the colour pattern can be favoured if changes in conspicuousness result in Mullerian mimicry with other defended prey. Here, we develop a model describing the population dynamics of a conspicuous defended prey species, and we assess the invasion conditions of derived phenotypes that differ from the ancestral phenotype by their conspicuousness. Such change in conspicuousness may then modify their level of mimicry with the local community of defended species. Derived colour pattern displayed in this focal population can therefore be either exactly similar, partially resembling or completely dissimilar to the local mimicry ring displaying the ancestral colour pattern. We assume that predation risk depends (1) on the number of individuals sharing a given colour pattern within the population, (2) on the occurrence of co-mimetic defended species, and (3) on the availability of alternative edible prey. Using a combination of analytical derivations and numerical simulations, we show that less conspicuous colour patterns are generally favoured within mimicry rings, unless reduced conspicuousness impairs mimicry. By contrast, when a mutation affecting the colour pattern leads to a shift toward a better protected mimicry ring, crypsis is no longer necessarily beneficial and a more conspicuous colour pattern can be favoured. The selected aposematic pattern then depends on the local composition of mimetic communities, as well as on the detectability, memorability and level of mimicry of the colour patterns.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2019

How heterozygote advantage can promote the evolution of disassortative mating and shape the underlying geneticarchitecture?

The evolution of mate preferences may depend on natural selection acting on the mating cues and on the underlying genetic architecture. While the evolution of assortative mating with respect to locally adapted traits has been well-characterized, the evolution of disassortative mating is poorly characterized. Here we aim at understanding the evolution of disassortative mating for traits under strong balancing selection, by focusing on polymorphic mimicry as an illustrative example. Positive frequency-dependent selection exerted by predators generates local selection on wing patterns acting against rare variants and promoting local monomorphism. This acts across species boundaries, favouring Mullerian mimicry among defended species. In this well-characterized adaptive landscape, polymorphic mimicry is rare but is observed in a butterfly species, associated with polymorphic chromosomal inversions. Because inversions are often associated with recessive deleterious mutations, we hypothesize they may induce heterozygote advantage at the color pattern locus, putatively favoring the evolution of disassortative mating. To explore the conditions underlying the emergence of disassortative mating, we modeled both a trait locus (colour pattern for instance), subject to mutational load, and a preference locus. We confirm that heterozygote advantage favors the evolution of disassortative mating and show that disassortative mating is more likely to emerge if at least one allele at the trait locus is free from any recessive deleterious mutations. We modelled different possible genetic architectures underlying mate choice behaviour, such as self referencing alleles, or specific preference or rejection alleles. Our results showed that self referencing or rejection alleles linked to the color pattern locus can be under positive selection and enable the emergence of disassortative mating. However rejection alleles allow the emergence of disassortative mating only when the color pattern and preference loci are tightly linked. Our results therefore provide relevant predictions on both the selection regimes and the genetic architecture favoring the emergence of disassortative mating and a theoretical framework in which to interprete empirical data on mate preferences in wild populations.

evolutionary biology↗