Latest Articles

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  Section: Ecology ; Topics: Ecology, Evolution

  Infanticide in a colonial cooperative bird is not associated with direct reproductive benefits

  Covas, Rita;   Silva, Liliana R.;   Ferreira, André C.;   D’Amelio, Pietro B.;   Fortuna, Rita;   Duval, Delphine;   Paquet, Matthieu;   Doutrelant, Claire  

  10.24072/pcjournal.700 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e24

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  Infanticide, the killing of dependent young by adult conspecifics, is an extreme form of conflict that remains poorly understood. Previous studies suggest that it is associated with reproductive benefits, either by making breeders newly available for reproduction or by increasing offspring care and reducing competition for resources. In addition, infanticide may result from a reproductive trade-off, where parents kill their offspring if environmental conditions compromise their reproductive value. Here, we combine video, genetic and individual-level reproductive data collected over 12 years to describe infanticide in a highly social, cooperative bird, the sociable weaver Philetairus socius and to establish whether direct reproductive benefits or life-history trade-offs are possible motivators for this behaviour. We documented 50 cases of infanticide and identified 27 aggressors with known histories. These were mostly born outside the colonies where they committed infanticide (63%) and there was a bias towards younger individuals. Aggressors were usually not part of the victim’s breeding group (74%), but in two cases infanticide was committed by the breeding female, and in five by helpers. In most cases, aggressors were not reproducing at the time of the infanticide, were not recorded mating with any of the breeders or helpers from the attacked nest, nor occupied the nest from where the chicks were evicted. Only 13 of the known aggressors were confirmed as breeders after the attacks, and these mostly reproduced at the colony where the attacks were committed. Overall, we found no evidence for direct reproductive benefits of infanticide in sociable weavers. However, the younger age of aggressors, lack of genetic relatedness to the victims and future breeding at the colony suggest that competition between breeding groups, and hence indirect reproductive benefits, could provide motivation for infanticide in this population. Additional work over longer periods is needed to identify these possible indirect fitness benefits of infanticide.

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  Section: Animal Science ; Topics: Agricultural sciences, Physiology

  Evolution of voluntary intake by dairy cows during the dry period

  Huang, Yayu;   Oble, Lucile; Jurquet, Julien; Delaby, Luc

  10.24072/pcjournal.695 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e23

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  Dairy cow’s feeding during the dry period is an essential step in ensuring that the next lactation runs smoothly. It has been demonstrated that feeding the dry cows ad libitum with low energy, high fill value diet apears to be beneficial. However, the voluntary intake of dry cows has received little attention. Existing prediction model for intake capacity may fail to capture the specific characteristics of dry cows, particularly regarding their milk yield potential. We conducted this study to evaluate the volutary intake of dairy cows receiving a TMR with high fill value, assess it’s variability depending on cow’s characteristic and adjust the INRA prediction models of intake capacity of dairy cows during the dry period. Sixty-two Holstein cows were enrolled in the experiment which carried out during 3 consecutive years. The dry-off took place 8 weeks before the expected parturition. After a 1-week transition period, cows were fed a total mixed ration (TMR) until calving (the last 6 weeks were considered for analysis). Dry matter intake (DMI) averaged 16.9 kg, it declined from 17.4 kg at week - 6 to 15.9 kg at week - 1 (p < 0.001). Parity (p < 0.001), BCS (p < 0.001), body weight (p < 0.05), week relative to parturition (p < 0.001) and peak milk yield potential of the ended lactation (p < 0.01) significantly influenced DMI. Depending on these results, the INRA model for prediction of intake capacity of pregnant dry cows has been revised and adjusted. Additional measured data on DMI in dry cows under various experimental conditions, such as different diet compositions or varying durations of the dry period, would be requied to confirm the consistency of the new IC prediction model and to refine a more representative coefficient before proposing the final adjusted equation.

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  Section: Archaeology ; Topics: Archaeology ; Conference: CAA2025

  Balancing Visual Credibility and Transparency: A FAIR Approach to 3D Digitisation for Cultural Heritage documentation and dissemination

  Bordignon, Alice;   Collina, Federica;   Fabbri, Francesca;   Fanini, Bruno;   Ferdani, Daniele;   Rega, Maria Felicia;   Sullini, Mattia  

  10.24072/pcjournal.696 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e22

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  The growing use of 3D technologies in the cultural heritage sector has raised important questions about striking the right balance between making information accessible for dissemination and ensuring its reliability for documentation purposes. Although digital models are now routinely produced and published across museums and research institutions, their processing often involves undocumented interventions, particularly when addressing missing or incomplete data arising from acquisition constraints. This lack of transparency could undermine the scientific value of 3D assets and limit their reusability. This paper presents a methodological pipeline, developed within the CHANGES project (Spoke 4: Virtual Technologies for Museums and Art Collections), which aims to align 3D digitisation practices with the FAIR principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability. The pipeline was tested on the large-scale digitisation of over 380 objects from the Aldrovandi exhibition and the Giovanni Capellini Geological Museum at the University of Bologna. It introduces a structured workflow that preserves and documents each version of the 3D model derived from the raw acquisition data. To address the aforementioned critical issue of transparency, the Vertex Colour Map methodology is proposed, which visualises operator interventions directly on the geometry. By embedding paradata in the geometry of the 3D model as a semantic layer, this approach enables users to distinguish between regions acquired faithfully and portions that have been reconstructed, thereby ensuring an informed interpretation of the model. Three case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of this method in documenting uncertainty and enhancing accountability in the modelling process. The results show that incorporating systematic paradata visualisation within FAIR-aligned workflows establishes a sustainable framework for the 3D digitisation of Cultural Heritage, enabling models to be used as tools for dissemination, research and long-term preservation simultaneously.

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  Section: Ecology ; Topics: Ecology, Evolution

  The biogeography of evolutionary radiations on oceanic archipelagos

  Brée, Baptiste; Matthews, Thomas J.;   Fernández-Palacios, José María;   Paroissin, Christian; Triantis, Kostas A.;   Whittaker, Robert J.;   Rigal, François  

  10.24072/pcjournal.688 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e21

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  Evolutionary radiations on oceanic archipelagos (ROAs) have long served as models for understanding evolutionary and ecological processes underlying species diversification. Yet, diversity patterns emerging from ROAs have received relatively little attention from biogeographers, even though characterizing the effect of key geo-environmental factors on island clade species could be important for unraveling diversification dynamics. In this study, we conducted a comparative analysis using island-specific species richness values for approximately one hundred ROAs across major oceanic archipelagos (mostly Hawaii, Canary Islands, Galápagos and Fiji) and taxa (vascular plants, invertebrates and vertebrates). Our aim was to determine whether (1) ROA species richness patterns scale as a function of key geo-environmental factors including island area, geological age, environmental heterogeneity (elevation and topographic complexity) and inter-island isolation, and (2) whether the magnitude of the effects of these factors varies across archipelagos and taxa. Our results identified elevation as a key driver of ROA species richness patterns on islands, supporting existing theoretical and empirical work that highlighted the central role of environmental heterogeneity in driving diversification on oceanic islands. As importantly, we found that the influence of geo-environmental factors varies across archipelagos and taxa, suggesting that unique archipelagic dynamics and biological traits together shape diversification differently. Our findings emphasize the value of applying biogeographical modeling at the resolution of individual radiations to improve our understanding of evolutionary processes on oceanic archipelagos.