Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34284635›Full record

ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2021

Killing conspecific adults in mammals.

José María Gómez, Miguel Verdú, Adela González-Megías

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
1.8field-weighted citation impact, top 15% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Nay to Prey: Challenging the View of Horses as a "Prey" Species.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025
    Review
  3. Article
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  7. Article
  8. Killing conspecific adults in mammals.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

José María GómezDpto de Ecología Funcional y Evolutiva, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Carretera de Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 0-4120 Almería, Spain.
Miguel VerdúCentro de Investigaciones sobre Desertificación (CSIC-UV-GV), Ctra Moncada-Náquera km 4.5, 46113 Moncada (Valencia), Spain.
Adela González-MegíasDpto de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada, Avda Fuentenueva s/n, 18071 Granada, Spain.
Centre d'Investigacions sobre Desertificació · ESEstacion Experimental de Zonas Aridas · ESUniversidad de Granada · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Mammals kill both conspecific infants and adults. Whereas infanticide has been profusely studied, the killing of non-infants (adulticide) has seldom attracted the attention of researchers. Mammals kill conspecific adults by at least four, non-exclusive reasons: during intrasexual aggression for mating opportunities, to defend valuable resources, to protect their progeny and to prey upon conspecifics. In this study, we test which reason is most likely to explain male and female adulticide in mammals. For this, we recorded the presence of adulticide, the ecological and behavioural traits, and the phylogenetic relationship for more than 1000 species. Adulticide has been recorded in over 350 species from the most important Mammalian clades. Male adulticide was phylogenetically correlated with the presence of size dimorphism and intrasexually selected weapons. Female adulticide was phylogenetically associated with the occurrence of infanticide. These results indicate that the evolutionary pathways underlying the evolution of adulticide differ between sexes in mammals. Whereas males commit adulticide to increase breeding opportunities and to compete with other males for mating, females commit adulticide mainly to defend offspring from infanticidal conspecifics.

Indexed as

AggressionMammalsAnimalsFemaleHumansMalePhylogenyReproductionintrasexual selectionlethal intraspecific aggressionMammalia

Identifiers

PMID34284635
PMCPMC8292775
OpenAlexW3186670515

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.