ArticlePloS one2012
Host longevity and parasite species richness in mammals.
Article in PloS one, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed.
- Insectivores exhibit superior microbial network connectivity and elevated zoonotic risk by 2035 relative to rodents and bats.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Host Abundance Predicts Interactive Roles in Neotropical Bat-Bat Fly Interactions.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Immune-cancer analyses across mammals reveal a potential trophic level and platelet-linked tradeoff between cancer and trauma mortality.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Diverse hosts, diverse immune systems: Evolutionary variation in bat immunology.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- Geographic variation in the determinants of ectoparasite faunas' species richness: fleas and gamasid mites parasitic on small mammals from 6 biogeographic realms.Parasitology · 2025Article
- Evidence for the Vacated Niche Hypothesis in Parasites of Invasive Mammals.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Programmed Grooming after 30 Years of Study: A Review of Evidence and Future Prospects.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2024Review
- Using phylogeographic link-prediction in primates to prioritize human parasite screening.American journal of biological anthropology · 2023Article
- Range area and the fast-slow continuum of life history traits predict pathogen richness in wild mammals.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Helminth community structure of Didelphis marsupialis (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae) in a transition area between the Brazilian Amazon and the Cerrado.Revista brasileira de parasitologia veterinaria = Brazilian journal of veterinary parasitology : Orgao Oficial do Colegio Brasileiro de Parasitologia Veterinaria · 2022Article
- Dilution effects in disease ecology.Ecology letters · 2021Review
- Gregariousness is associated with parasite species richness in a community of wild chimpanzees.Behavioral ecology and sociobiology · 2021Article
- Taxonomic resolution affects host-parasite association model performance.Parasitology · 2021Article
- Predictors of helminth parasite infection in female chacma baboons (International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2021Article
- Effects of latitude, host body size, and host trophic guild on patterns of diversity of helminths associated with humans, wild and domestic mammals of Mexico.International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2020Article
- Pathogens Shape Sex Differences in Mammalian Aging.Trends in parasitology · 2020Review
- Article
- Demographic and reproductive associations with nematode infection in a long-lived mammal.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Parasite burden in a short-lived chameleon,International journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2019Article
- Sex-specific effects of parasites on telomere dynamics in a short-lived passerine-the blue tit.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hosts and parasites co-evolve, with each lineage exerting selective pressures on the other. Thus, parasites may influence host life-history characteristics, such as longevity, and simultaneously host life-history may influence parasite diversity. If parasite burden causes increased mortality, we expect a negative association between host longevity and parasite species richness. Alternatively, if long-lived species represent a more stable environment for parasite establishment, host longevity and parasite species richness may show a positive association. We tested these two opposing predictions in carnivores, primates and terrestrial ungulates using phylogenetic comparative methods and controlling for the potentially confounding effects of sampling effort and body mass. We also tested whether increased host longevity is associated with increased immunity, using white blood cell counts as a proxy for immune investment. Our analyses revealed weak relationships between parasite species richness and longevity. We found a significant negative relationship between longevity and parasite species richness for ungulates, but no significant associations in carnivores or primates. We also found no evidence for a relationship between immune investment and host longevity in any of our three groups. Our results suggest that greater parasite burden is linked to higher host mortality in ungulates. Thus, shorter-lived ungulates may be more vulnerable to disease outbreaks, which has implications for ungulate conservation, and may be applicable to other short-lived mammals.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.