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The multinomial index: a robust measure of reproductive skew

Ross, Cody T; Jaeggi, Adrian V; Borgerhoff Mulder, Monique; Smith, Jennifer E; Smith, Eric Alden; Gavrilets, Sergey; Hooper, Paul L (2020). The multinomial index: a robust measure of reproductive skew. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 287(1936):20202025.

Abstract

Inequality or skew in reproductive success (RS) is common across many animal species and is of long-standing interest to the study of social evolution. However, the measurement of inequality in RS in natural populations has been challenging because existing quantitative measures are highly sensitive to variation in group/sample size, mean RS, and age-structure. This makes comparisons across multiple groups and/or species vulnerable to statistical artefacts and hinders empirical and theoretical progress. Here, we present a new measure of reproductive skew, the multinomial index, M, that is unaffected by many of the structural biases affecting existing indices. M is analytically related to Nonacs' binomial index, B, and comparably accounts for heterogeneity in age across individuals; in addition, M allows for the possibility of diminishing or even highly nonlinear RS returns to age. Unlike B, however, M is not biased by differences in sample/group size. To demonstrate the value of our index for cross-population comparisons, we conduct a reanalysis of male reproductive skew in 31 primate species. We show that a previously reported negative effect of group size on mating skew was an artefact of structural biases in existing skew measures, which inevitably decline with group size; this bias disappears when using M. Applying phylogenetically controlled, mixed-effects models to the same dataset, we identify key similarities and differences in the inferred within- and between-species predictors of reproductive skew across metrics. Finally, we provide an R package, SkewCalc, to estimate M from empirical data.

Additional indexing

Item Type:Journal Article, refereed, original work
Communities & Collections:04 Faculty of Medicine > Institute of Evolutionary Medicine
Dewey Decimal Classification:610 Medicine & health
Language:English
Date:14 October 2020
Deposited On:19 Oct 2020 15:54
Last Modified:22 Apr 2025 01:38
Publisher:Royal Society Publishing
ISSN:0962-8452
OA Status:Hybrid
Free access at:PubMed ID. An embargo period may apply.
Publisher DOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2025
PubMed ID:33023419
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  • Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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