Foster, K. R., & Ratnieks, F. L. W. (2000). Social insects: Facultative worker policing in a wasp. Nature, 407(6805), 692–693.
Abstract: Kin-selection theory predicts that in social-insect colonies where the queen has mated multiple times, the workers will enforce cooperation by policing each other's reproduction1, 2, 3, 4. We have discovered a species, the wasp Dolichovespula saxonica, in which some queens mate once and others mate many times, and in which workers frequently attempt reproduction, allowing this prediction to be tested directly. We find that multiple mating by the queen leads to mutual policing by workers, whereas single mating does not.
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Hamilton, W. D. (1970). Selfish and Spiteful Behaviour in an Evolutionary Model. Nature, 228, 1218–1220.
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Gentner, T. Q., Fenn, K. M., Margoliash, D., & Nusbaum, H. C. (2006). Recursive syntactic pattern learning by songbirds. Nature, 440(7088), 1204–1207.
Abstract: Humans regularly produce new utterances that are understood by other members of the same language community. Linguistic theories account for this ability through the use of syntactic rules (or generative grammars) that describe the acceptable structure of utterances. The recursive, hierarchical embedding of language units (for example, words or phrases within shorter sentences) that is part of the ability to construct new utterances minimally requires a 'context-free' grammar that is more complex than the 'finite-state' grammars thought sufficient to specify the structure of all non-human communication signals. Recent hypotheses make the central claim that the capacity for syntactic recursion forms the computational core of a uniquely human language faculty. Here we show that European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) accurately recognize acoustic patterns defined by a recursive, self-embedding, context-free grammar. They are also able to classify new patterns defined by the grammar and reliably exclude agrammatical patterns. Thus, the capacity to classify sequences from recursive, centre-embedded grammars is not uniquely human. This finding opens a new range of complex syntactic processing mechanisms to physiological investigation.
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Packer, C. (1977). Reciprocal altruism in Papio anubis. Nature, 265, 441–445.
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Fedak Ma, S. H. (1979). Reappraisal of energetics of locomotion shows identical cost in bipeds and quadrupeds including ostrich and horse. Nature, 282, 713–716.
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Reeve, H. K. (1992). Queen activation of lazy workers in colonies of the eusocial naked mole-rat. Nature, 358, 147–149.
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Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Parker, G. A. (1995). Punishment in animal societies. Nature, 373(6511), 209–216.
Abstract: Although positive reciprocity (reciprocal altruism) has been a focus of interest in evolutionary biology, negative reciprocity (retaliatory infliction of fitness reduction) has been largely ignored. In social animals, retaliatory aggression is common, individuals often punish other group members that infringe their interests, and punishment can cause subordinates to desist from behaviour likely to reduce the fitness of dominant animals. Punishing strategies are used to establish and maintain dominance relationships, to discourage parasites and cheats, to discipline offspring or prospective sexual partners and to maintain cooperative behaviour.
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Clutton-Brock, T. H. (1974). Primate social organisation and ecology. Nature, 250(5467), 539–542.
Abstract: Attempts to relate interspecific differences in social organisation among primates to gross differences in habitat or diet type have been largely unsuccessful. This is probably partly because distantly related species have adapted to similar ecological situations in different ways and partly because much finer ecological differences are important.
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Prather, J. F., Peters, S., Nowicki, S., & Mooney, R. (2008). Precise auditory-vocal mirroring in neurons for learned vocal communication. Nature, 451(7176), 305–310.
Abstract: Brain mechanisms for communication must establish a correspondence between sensory and motor codes used to represent
the signal. One idea is that this correspondence is established at the level of single neurons that are active when the
individual performs a particular gesture or observes a similar gesture performed by another individual. Although neurons
that display a precise auditory–vocal correspondence could facilitate vocal communication, they have yet to be identified.
Here we report that a certain class of neurons in the swamp sparrow forebrain displays a precise auditory–vocal
correspondence. We show that these neurons respond in a temporally precise fashion to auditory presentation of certain
note sequences in this songbird’s repertoire and to similar note sequences in other birds’ songs. These neurons display
nearly identical patterns of activity when the bird sings the same sequence, and disrupting auditory feedback does not alter
this singing-related activity, indicating it is motor in nature. Furthermore, these neurons innervate striatal structures
important for song learning, raising the possibility that singing-related activity in these cells is compared to auditory
feedback to guide vocal learning.
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Flack, J. C., Girvan, M., de Waal, F. B. M., & Krakauer, D. C. (2006). Policing stabilizes construction of social niches in primates. Nature, 439(7075), 426–429.
Abstract: All organisms interact with their environment, and in doing so shape it, modifying resource availability. Termed niche construction, this process has been studied primarily at the ecological level with an emphasis on the consequences of construction across generations. We focus on the behavioural process of construction within a single generation, identifying the role a robustness mechanism--conflict management--has in promoting interactions that build social resource networks or social niches. Using 'knockout' experiments on a large, captive group of pigtailed macaques (Macaca nemestrina), we show that a policing function, performed infrequently by a small subset of individuals, significantly contributes to maintaining stable resource networks in the face of chronic perturbations that arise through conflict. When policing is absent, social niches destabilize, with group members building smaller, less diverse, and less integrated grooming, play, proximity and contact-sitting networks. Instability is quantified in terms of reduced mean degree, increased clustering, reduced reach, and increased assortativity. Policing not only controls conflict, we find it significantly influences the structure of networks that constitute essential social resources in gregarious primate societies. The structure of such networks plays a critical role in infant survivorship, emergence and spread of cooperative behaviour, social learning and cultural traditions.
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