Male synchrony: individual variation, epigenetic drivers and the overall effect on reproductive success in multilevel alliances of wild dolphins

群居动物表现出广泛的社会行为来吸引配偶，对抗竞争对手，与盟友合作以增加达尔文适应性。群体成员在年龄或性别等特征上彼此不同，但在参与社会行为的能力上也不同。社会行为中的个体间差异已经被证明是野外调查的挑战，并且可能受到基因表达和生理机制的驱动，由环境和个体的经验塑造。同步展示是社会行为，许多动物社会的标志，众所周知的例子包括雄性矛尾侏儒鸟，招潮蟹和Katydids，它们都表现出协调的行为。参与这种同步展示的个体可能在与群体伙伴同步的能力上有所不同，但很难追踪这种差异。上述例子是由女性选择和男性竞争驱动的。然而，在人类中，同步的原因与合作密切相关。雄性海豚也同步运动和声音的显示和合作，在追求女性，与一些个体可能能够更精确的协调。海豚的这种同步性可能是为了促进联盟内的社会联系和合作而进化的，在这种情况下，雄性需要共同努力来驱赶雌性并保护她免受竞争对手的伤害，但它们也在争夺不可分割的资源（受精）。该项目将确定野生雄性海豚更精确的运动和声学同步是否会导致繁殖成功率增加，并调查雄性海豚协调行为水平不同的DNA甲基化模式。结合行为和生物信息学分析将揭示驱动因素和行为变化对健康的影响，并将确定同步是否是联盟行为的适应性特征，而不仅仅限于人类。

Group-living animals express a wide range of social behaviours to attract mates, confront competitors and cooperate with allies toincrease Darwinian fitness. Group members differ from each other in characteristics such as age or sex, but also in their ability toengage in social behaviours. Inter-individual variation in social behaviours has been proven challenging to investigate in the wild andis potentially driven by gene expression and physiological mechanisms, shaped by the environment and an individual's experience.Synchronous displays are social behaviours, hallmarks of many animal societies, with well known examples including male lancetailedmanakins, fiddler crabs and katydids which all express coordinated behaviours. Individuals that engage in such synchronousdisplays may differ in their abilities to synchronise with group mates, but it is hard to track such differences. The above-mentionedexamples are driven by female choice and male competition. However, in humans the causes of synchrony are strongly linked tocooperation. Male dolphins also synchronize motor and acoustic displays and cooperate in the pursuit of females, with someindividuals potentially being capable of more precise coordination. Such synchrony in dolphins may have evolved to promote withinalliance social bonding and cooperation in a context where males need to work together to herd a female and defend her from rivals,yet they are also competing for an indivisible resource (fertilization). This project will determine whether more precise motor andacoustic synchrony in wild male bottlenose dolphins leads to increased reproductive success and investigate patterns of DNAmethylation in males that vary in their level of coordinated behaviour. Combining behavioural and bioinformatic analysis will shedlight on the drivers and effects of behavioural variation on fitness, and will determine if synchrony is an adaptive feature ofcoalitionary behaviour that is not limited to humans.