USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Breaking the Social-Non-social Dichotomy: A Role for Reptiles in Vertebrate Social Behavior Research?
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
ISSN
0179-1613
Abstract
Although social behavior in vertebrates spans a continuum from solitary to highly social, taxa are often dichotomized as either social or non-social. We argue that this social dichotomy is overly simplistic, neglects the diversity of vertebrate social systems, impedes our understanding of the evolution of social behavior, and perpetuates the erroneous belief that one groupthe reptilesis primarily non-social. This perspective essay highlights the diversity and complexity of reptile social systems, briefly reviews reasons for their historical neglect in research, and indicates how reptiles can contribute to our understanding of the evolution of vertebrate social behavior. Although a robust review of social behavior across vertebrates is lacking, the repeated evolution of social systems in multiple independent lineages enables investigation of the factors that promote shifts in vertebrate social behavior and the paraphyly of reptiles reinforces the need to understand reptile social behavior.
Language
en_US
Publisher
WILEY
Recommended Citation
Doody, J. S., Burghardt, G. M. and Dinets, V. (2013), Breaking the Social–Non‐social Dichotomy: A Role for Reptiles in Vertebrate Social Behavior Research?. Ethology, 119: 95-103. doi:10.1111/eth.12047
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Citation only. Full-text article is available through licensed access provided by the publisher. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.