Coevolution of social network structure and life history in toothed whales.

Toothed whales with longer lifespans and larger bodies tend to form more modular social networks, with modularity showing strong phylogenetic signal across 23 species.

• Why it matters: Quantitative comparisons of social structure across toothed whale species are limited, leaving uncertainty about how life history evolution relates to the emergence of complex social relationships.
• What they did: The study compiled 98 modularity measures and 89 social differentiation measures from existing social network analyses, then combined them with a life history database using phylogenetic multilevel models.
• The result: Correlated evolution is supported: modularity is linked to lifespan and body size, social differentiation shows weaker links, and causal coevolutionary models provide preliminary evidence that social structure can both lead and follow life history change.

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