Geographic Variation of Multiple Paternity in the Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis)
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The common garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis, is the most widely distributed reptile species in North America. Although multiple paternity has been documented in this species, variation in reproduction and ecology suggests that the frequency of occurrence of multiple paternity may vary. We investigated the occurrence of multiple paternity in snakes on Vancouver Island with the following aims: (1) to detect the occurrence of multiple paternity at this location; (2) to determine whether life-history variation and single versus multiple paternity were associated; and (3) to determine whether local rates of multiple paternity differ in comparison to a previous study of this species. Sixteen females and their offspring were analyzed using three highly polymorphic microsatellite loci. Only six of 16 litters showed direct evidence of multiple paternity. Results also showed evidence of a trade-off between offspring size and number of offspring per litter and that females that were multiply mated generally made a higher reproductive investment than females that were singly mated. Rates of multiple paternity in this study and in the previous study differed and were significantly different when litters of fewer than five offspring were eliminated from the analysis. Although we cannot determine the causes of variation in multiple paternity given our data, we suggest two possible mechanisms, one genetic and one ecological, that may lead to different frequencies of multiple fertilizations in this species.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".