01.02 – Mutualism

Episode description:

In this series on symbiosis, we’re taking a deep dive into the many different types of relationships organisms have evolved into, the good, the bad, the benign. This episode highlights mutualisms, those relationships where both organisms involved benefit. We look at the broad categories of mutualism (service vs resource), discuss the evolutionary origins of multicellular life, and how the organisms involved (the symbionts) are in a constant battle to try and out-exploit the other symbiont. Welcome to The Single Acorn.

WORKS CITED

• A few misunderstandings about reciprocal altruism (link)
• Food sharing in vampire bats: reciprocal help predicts donations more than relatedness or harassment (link)
• The exploitation of mutualisms (link)
• The cetacean offal connection: Feces and vomits of spinner dolphins as a food source for reef fishes (link)
• Darwin’s Madagascan Hawk Moth Prediction (link)
• Variation in the costs and benefits of mutualism: the interaction between yuccas and yucca moths (link)
• Arctostaphylos seed germination (link)
• The anomalous Kentucky coffeetree: megafaunal fruit sinking to extinction? (link)
  • The Ghosts of Evolution by Connie Barlow
• Woolly Mammoth Restoration project (link)
• The Ultimate Basis of the Caching Preferences of Rodents, and the Oak-Dispersal Syndrome: Tannins, Insects, and Seed Germination (link)
• Parasite or partner? Causes and consequences of conditional outcomes in a cleaning symbiosis (link)
• Selection for cheating across disparate environments in the legume‐rhizobium mutualism (link)
• Nectarless flowers: ecological correlates and evolutionary stability (link)
• Eastern chipmunks increase their perception of predation risk in response to titmouse alarm calls (link)
• The role of nodding stems in the goldenrod–gall–fly interaction: A test of the “ducking” hypothesis (link)