In collaboration with Alison Davis, I helped to study the evolution of sociality in the desert night lizard, Xantusia vigilis. Desert night lizards form aggregations of multiple individuals in the winter. We conducted a five year mark-recapture study to investigate this behavior. We found that social aggregations of X. vigilis are often of related individuals and can form through delayed dispersal of offspring. We also discovered that nuclear family groups were more stable than groups of less related individuals. These patterns are strikingly similar to the formation of groups of mammals and birds, which suggests that common mechanisms underlie the evolution of sociality in vertebrates. We also combined the data from the mark-recapture study with data from lab experiments to demonstrate that aggregating individuals have greater thermal stability, survival, and reproductive success as compared to solitary individuals. This showed that direct fitness benefits are responsible for aggregative social behavior.
Publications
Rabosky, ARD, A. Corl, Y. Surget-Groba, H. Liwang, and B. Sinervo. 2012. Direct fitness correlates and thermal consequences of facultative aggregation in a desert lizard. PLoS One 7: 1-8. [link]
Davis A.R., A. Corl, Y. Surget-Groba, and B. Sinervo. 2011. Convergent evolution of kin-based sociality in a lizard. Proceedings of the Royal Society – B. 278: 1507–1514. [link]
