Contributors explore common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture resulting from convergent evolution.
During the past 12,000 years, agriculture originated in humans as many as twenty-three times, and during the past 65 million years, agriculture also originated in nonhuman animals at least twenty times and in insects at least fifteen times. It is much more likely that these independent origins represent similar solutions to the challenge of growing food than that they are due purely to chance. This volume seeks to identify common elements in the evolutionary histories of both human and insect agriculture that are the results of convergent evolution. The goal is to create a new, synthetic field that characterizes, quantifies, and empirically documents the evolutionary and ecological mechanisms that drive both human and nonhuman agriculture.
The contributors report on the results of quantitative analyses comparing human and nonhuman agriculture; discuss evolutionary conflicts of interest between and among farmers and cultivars and how they interfere with efficiencies of agricultural symbiosis; describe in detail agriculture in termites, ambrosia beetles, and ants; and consider patterns of evolutionary convergence in different aspects of agriculture, comparing fungal parasites of ant agriculture with fungal parasites of human agriculture, analyzing the effects of agriculture on human anatomy, and tracing the similarities and differences between the evolution of agriculture in humans and in a single, relatively well-studied insect group, fungus-farming ants.
Author(s): Ted R. Schultz, Richard Gawne, Peter N. Peregrine
Series: Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology
Publisher: The MIT Press
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 338
City: Cambridge
Contents
Series Foreword / Gerd B. Müller, Thomas Pradeu, and Katrin Schäfer
Introduction / Ted R. Schultz, Richard Gawne, and Peter N. Peregrine
Definitions
Workshops
Acknowledgments
References
I. Comparative Analyses of Human and Nonhuman Agriculture
1. Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Bilaterian Animals: An Adaptive Landscape Perspective / George R. McGhee
The Phenomenon of Convergent Evolution in Agricultural Behaviors
Potential Causes of Convergent Agricultural Evolution
Adaptive Landscapes: A Spatial Approach to Evolutionary Analysis
Types of Agricultural Convergence
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References
2. The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture: A Systematic Comparative Analysis / Peter N. Peregrine
Human Agriculture
A Comparative Perspective on the Evolution of Agriculture
Results
The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Humans and Insects
References
II. Conflict and Cooperation In Human and Nonhuman Agriculture
3. If Group Selection Is Weak, What Can Agriculture Learn from Fungus-Farming Insects? / R. Ford Denison
Natural Selection Has Not Consistently Improved Ecosystem Organization
Has Group Selection or Kin Selection Improved Insect Agriculture?
How Effective Is Selection among Microbes Imposed by Fungus-Growing Insects?
References
4. The Sociobiology of Domestication / Duur K. Aanen and Niels P. R. Anten
Is the Distinction between a “Host” and a “Symbiont” Useful?
Mechanisms Whereby a Host Maximizes “Symbiont Productivity”
Analogies with Human Agriculture
What Can Crop Breeding Learn from Other Host-Symbiont Interactions?
Conclusion and Outlook
References
5. Lifetime Commitment between Social Insect Families and Their Fungal Cultivars Complicates Comparisons with Human Farming / Jacobus J. Boomsma
A Hamiltonian Gene’s Eye Perspective on Cooperation and Conflict in Mating and Farming
Comparing Exclusively Committed Insect Farming with Promiscuous Human Farming
Rethinking the Natural History of Insect Fungus Farming
Conclusions
Acknowledgments
References
III. The Diversity of Insect Agriculture
6. Fungus-Growing Termites: An Eco-Evolutionary Perspective / Judith Korb
Niche Expansion and Contraction of Macrotermes bellicosus—Ecological Consequences of a Close Association?
Niche Differentiation through Fungal Symbionts?
Termite-Termitomyces Associations: Evolutionary Considerations
What Can We Learn from the Macrotermitinae-Termitomyces Symbiosis?
Comparison with Human Agriculture
Acknowledgments
References
7. Mycangia Define the Diverse Ambrosia Beetle–Fungus Symbioses / Chase G. Mayers, Thomas C. Harrington, and Peter H. W. Biedermann
Mycangia Set the Ambrosia Symbiosis Apart
Brief History of Mycangia
Definition and General Features of Mycangia
Mycangial Glands
Mycangium Propagules
The Mycangium Cycle
Mycangia Preserve Fungal Cultivars
Feedbacks among Fungal Cultivars, Mycangia, and Cooperative Farming
Mycangia Influence Cultivar Choice and Flexibility and Define the Ambrosia Symbioses
Types of Ambrosia Beetle Mycangia
Mycangia Facilitate the Convergent Evolution of Agriculture
Acknowledgments
References
8. Agricultural and Proto-Agricultural Symbioses in Ants / Ana Ješovnik and Ted R. Schultz
Ants and Other Animals
Ants and Plants
Ants and Fungi
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
References
9. Plant Farming by Ants: Convergence and Divergence in the Evolution of Agriculture / Guillaume Chomicki
The Different Forms of Plant Cultivation by Ants
Biology of the Fijian Farming Symbiosis
Comparative Ecology of Plant and Fungus Farming in Social Insects and Humans
Comparative Analysis of the Evolution of Agricultures
Can Plant Farming by Ants Be Useful for Understanding Human Agriculture?
Conclusion
References
IV. Patterns Of Convergence In Agriculturalists, Domesticates, and Parasites
10. Coevolution in the Arable Battlefield: Pathways to Crop Domestication, Cultural Practices, and Parasitic Domesticoids / Dorian Q. Fuller and Tim Denham
Defining the Arable Habitat: Target Crops and Weedy Taxa
Archaeological Evidence for Domestication of Seed Annuals: The Cereal Pathway to Agriculture
Secondary Cereal Domesticates: Crops from Weeds
Vegetative Domestication of Root Crops
Archaeobotanical Evidence for Domestication of Long-Lived Perennials
Discussion: Temporalities of Practice and Transmission
References
11. Convergent Adaptation and Specialization of Eukaryotic Pathogens across Agricultural Systems / Nicole M. Gerardo
The Diversity of Eukaryotic Pathogens Attacking Human and Ant Crops
Studying the Origins of Crop Pathogens
Experimental Approaches, Phylogenetics, and Population Genetics Elucidate Patterns of Specialization
The Use of Genetics and Genomics to Reveal Mechanisms of Host Utilization and Specialization
Consideration of How Agricultural Practices Shape Pathogen Evolution
Conclusions and Implications
Acknowledgments
References
12. Evaluating Potential Proximate and Ultimate Causes of Phenotypic Change in the Human Skeleton over the Agricultural Transition / Lumila P. Menéndez and Laura T. Buck
Morphological Changes Associated with the Transition to Agriculture
Discussion
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
References
13. Hammond’s Law: A Mechanism Governing the Development and Evolution of Form in Domesticated Organisms / Richard Gawne and Kenneth Z. McKenna
Developmental Constraints on Organismal Form
Hammond’s Law
Nutritional Variation and Character-Specific Reaction Norms: Adaptation to Controlled Agricultural Environments Breaks Functional Constraints on Development
Potential Applications of Hammond’s Law to Insect Agricultural Systems
Hammond’s Law as a Generalized Developmental Theory
Acknowledgments
References
14. The Convergent Evolution of Agriculture in Humans and Fungus-Farming Ants / Ted R. Schultz
The Fungus-Farming Ants
Differences between Human and Ant Agriculture
Hunting-Gathering, Niche Construction, and Cultivation
Domestication
Agriculture
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
References
Contributors
Index
