High survival during hibernation affects onset and timing of reproduction

Bieber, Claudia; Juškaitis, Rimvydas; Turbill, Christopher; Ruf, T.

doi:10.1007/s00442-011-2194-7

Cited by 47 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…1). Reversal into hibernation and daily torpor would have been highly adaptive when animals were not breeding, especially in predator-rich environments (Bieber et al, 2012;Lovegrove et al, 2014b). Some marsupials (Geiser, McAllan & Brigham, 2005), tenrecs (Stephenson & Racey, 1993a,b) and bats (Willis, Brigham & Geiser, 2006) become torpid during pregnancy, but the vast majority of mammals maximize endogenous heat production during pregnancy and lactation emphasizing the prevailing importance of parental care in the evolution of endothermy (Farmer, 2000;Levesque & Lovegrove, 2014).…”

Section: Departure From Endothermy: Torpor and Hibernationmentioning

confidence: 97%

A phenology of the evolution of endothermy in birds and mammals

2016

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Recent palaeontological data and novel physiological hypotheses now allow a timescaled reconstruction of the evolution of endothermy in birds and mammals. A three-phase iterative model describing how endothermy evolved from Permian ectothermic ancestors is presented. In Phase One I propose that the elevation of endothermy - increased metabolism and body temperature (T ) - complemented large-body-size homeothermy during the Permian and Triassic in response to the fitness benefits of enhanced embryo development (parental care) and the activity demands of conquering dry land. I propose that Phase Two commenced in the Late Triassic and Jurassic and was marked by extreme body-size miniaturization, the evolution of enhanced body insulation (fur and feathers), increased brain size, thermoregulatory control, and increased ecomorphological diversity. I suggest that Phase Three occurred during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic and involved endothermic pulses associated with the evolution of muscle-powered flapping flight in birds, terrestrial cursoriality in mammals, and climate adaptation in response to Late Cenozoic cooling in both birds and mammals. Although the triphasic model argues for an iterative evolution of endothermy in pulses throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, it is also argued that endothermy was potentially abandoned at any time that a bird or mammal did not rely upon its thermal benefits for parental care or breeding success. The abandonment would have taken the form of either hibernation or daily torpor as observed in extant endotherms. Thus torpor and hibernation are argued to be as ancient as the origins of endothermy itself, a plesiomorphic characteristic observed today in many small birds and mammals.

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Section: Departure From Endothermy: Torpor and Hibernationmentioning

confidence: 97%

A phenology of the evolution of endothermy in birds and mammals

2016

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“…Pinpointing the lowest safe limits of a human hibernating T b is important because it will have profound logistical and cost implications for deep space travel. Hibernation lowers the risk of extinction [58], increases winter survival rates [59], and facilitates reproductive and life-history flexibility [24,60]. Indeed, T. ecaudatus display some of the most unique mammalian life-history traits, such as the largest litter sizes (as many as 30), of all mammals [61].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mammal survival at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary: metabolic homeostasis in prolonged tropical hibernation in tenrecs

2014

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Free-ranging common tenrecs, Tenrec ecaudatus, from sub-tropical Madagascar, displayed long-term (nine months) hibernation which lacked any evidence of periodic interbout arousals (IBAs). IBAs are the dominant feature of the mammalian hibernation phenotype and are thought to periodically restore long-term ischaemia damage and/or metabolic imbalances (depletions and accumulations). However, the lack of IBAs in tenrecs suggests no such pathology at hibernation T b s . 228C. The long period of tropical hibernation that we report might explain how the ancestral placental mammal survived the global devastation that drove the dinosaurs and many other vertebrates to extinction at the Cretaceous -Palaeogene boundary following a meteorite impact. The genetics and biochemistry of IBAs are of immense interest to biomedical researchers and space exploration scientists, in the latter case, those envisioning a hibernating state in astronauts for deep space travel. Unravelling the physiological thresholds and temperature dependence of IBAs will provide new impetus to these research quests.

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“…Non-migratory animals reduce activity and fuel metabolic needs with stored energy reserves to match energy expenditure with energy availability. Heterothermic endotherms further reduce their daily energy expenditure by entering a torpid state (Heldmaier et al 2004;Geiser 2013), which increases survival (Turbill et al 2011;Bieber et al 2012). We refer to heterothermy as the faculty of some endotherms to undergo a controlled reduction of their body temperature during bouts of hibernation and daily torpor, in association with metabolism reduction (Heldmaier et al 2004;Geiser 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

When to initiate torpor use? Food availability times the transition to winter phenotype in a tropical heterotherm

et al. 2015

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Timing of winter phenotype expression determines individual chances of survival until the next reproductive season. Environmental cues triggering this seasonal phenotypic transition have rarely been investigated, although they play a central role in the compensation of climatic fluctuations via plastic phenotypic adjustments. Initiation of winter daily torpor use-a widespread energy-saving phenotype-could be primarily timed according to anticipatory seasonal cues (anticipatory cues hypothesis), or flexibly fine-tuned according to actual energy availability (food shortage hypothesis). We conducted a food supplementation experiment on wild heterothermic primates (grey mouse lemurs, Microcebus murinus) at the transition to the food-limited dry season, i.e. the austral winter. As expected under the food shortage hypothesis, food-supplemented individuals postponed the seasonal transition to normal torpor use by 1-2 month(s), spent four times less torpid, and exhibited minimal skin temperature 6 °C higher than control animals. This study provides the first in situ experimental evidence that food availability, rather than abiotic cues, times the launching of torpor use. Fine-tuning of the timing of seasonal phenotypic transitions according to actual food shortage should provide heterotherms with a flexible adaptive mechanism to survive unexpected environmental fluctuations.

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High survival during hibernation affects onset and timing of reproduction

Cited by 47 publications

References 33 publications

A phenology of the evolution of endothermy in birds and mammals

A phenology of the evolution of endothermy in birds and mammals

Mammal survival at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary: metabolic homeostasis in prolonged tropical hibernation in tenrecs

When to initiate torpor use? Food availability times the transition to winter phenotype in a tropical heterotherm

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