Dpto de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Carretera de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 0-4120 Almería, Spain.
Centro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CSIC-UV-GV), Ctra Moncada-Náquera km 4.5, 46113 Moncada (Valencia), Spain.
Proc Biol Sci. 2021 Jul 28;288(1955):20211080. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1080. Epub 2021 Jul 21.
Mammals kill both conspecific infants and adults. Whereas infanticide has been profusely studied, the killing of non-infants (adulticide) has seldom attracted the attention of researchers. Mammals kill conspecific adults by at least four, non-exclusive reasons: during intrasexual aggression for mating opportunities, to defend valuable resources, to protect their progeny and to prey upon conspecifics. In this study, we test which reason is most likely to explain male and female adulticide in mammals. For this, we recorded the presence of adulticide, the ecological and behavioural traits, and the phylogenetic relationship for more than 1000 species. Adulticide has been recorded in over 350 species from the most important Mammalian clades. Male adulticide was phylogenetically correlated with the presence of size dimorphism and intrasexually selected weapons. Female adulticide was phylogenetically associated with the occurrence of infanticide. These results indicate that the evolutionary pathways underlying the evolution of adulticide differ between sexes in mammals. Whereas males commit adulticide to increase breeding opportunities and to compete with other males for mating, females commit adulticide mainly to defend offspring from infanticidal conspecifics.
哺乳动物既杀死同物种的幼仔也杀死成年个体。虽然杀婴行为已被广泛研究，但对非幼仔（杀成体）的研究很少引起研究人员的关注。哺乳动物通过至少四种非排他性的原因杀死同物种的成年个体：为了获得交配机会而进行的种内攻击、为了保护有价值的资源、为了保护其后代以及为了捕食同种个体。在这项研究中，我们测试了哪种原因最有可能解释哺乳动物的雄性和雌性杀成体行为。为此，我们记录了 1000 多种物种的杀成体行为的存在、生态和行为特征以及系统发育关系。杀成体行为已在 350 多种最重要的哺乳动物类群中被记录。雄性杀成体行为与大小二型性和种内选择武器的存在具有系统发育相关性。雌性杀成体行为与杀婴行为的发生有关。这些结果表明，哺乳动物中杀成体行为的进化途径在性别之间存在差异。雄性杀成体行为是为了增加繁殖机会，并与其他雄性竞争交配，而雌性杀成体行为主要是为了保护后代免受同种杀婴者的侵害。
