image: Soldiers and workers of the turtle ant Cephalotes clypeatus combine their armored heads to group-defend their nest entrance from intruders. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Scott Powell
Using a species-level comparative analysis, researchers found that in turtle ants, which use their heads to defend nest entrances, the evolution of head shape and size is reversible, repeatable, and decoupled within the soldier caste as well as relative to the queen caste; the findings suggest the importance of decoupled trait evolution in facilitating adaptive diversification of derived social lineages and that castes are a product of flexible adaptive evolution at the species level.
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Article #19-13750: "Trait evolution is reversible, repeatable, and decoupled in the soldier caste of turtle ants," by Scott Powell, Shauna L. Price, & Daniel J. C. Kronauer.
MEDIA CONTACT: Scott Powell, George Washington University, Washington, DC; tel: 202-751-1886; email: scottpowell@gwu.edu
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences