Mammal milk! Comparative study blogged!

I am excited (dare I say thrilled) to report that a paper I was involved with got blogged about!
 *Forgive the self-enthusiasm.  This is a first for me!*

This paper examines lactation in 129 species and was published this year (2013) in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

The paper is titled: "The evolution of the nutrient composition of mammalian milks" 

Authors: Amy L. Skibiel, Lauren M. Downing, Teri J. Orr and Wendy R. Hood

Article Summary:  
"1. In mammals, nutrient allocation during lactation is a critical component of maternal care
as milk intake promotes juvenile growth and survival, and hence maternal and offspring
fitness.
2. Milk composition varies widely across mammals and is hypothesized to have arisen via
selection pressures associated with environment, diet and life history. These hypotheses have
been proposed based on observations and/or cross-species comparisons that did not standardize
for stage of lactation and did not consider evolutionary history of the species in analyses.
3. We conducted the largest comparative analysis of milk composition to date accounting for
phylogenetic relationships among species in order to understand the selective advantage of
producing milk with specific nutritional profiles. We examined four milk constituents in association
with species ecology while incorporating phylogeny in analyses.
4. Phylogenetic signal was apparent for all milk constituents examined. After controlling for
phylogeny, diet and relative lactation length explained the greatest amount of variation in
milk composition. Several aspects of species’ ecologies, including adaptation to arid environments,
reproductive output and maternal body mass were not associated with milk composition
after accounting for phylogeny.
5. Our results suggest that milk composition is largely a function of evolutionary history,
maternal nutrient intake and duration of milk production. Arriving at these conclusions was
made possible by including the evolutionary relationships among species."



Read the blog entry by Katie Hinde here at:
http://mammalssuck.blogspot.com/2013/11/mega-mammal-milk-analysis.html

This paper was part of Amy Skibiel's dissertation work under the direction of Wendy Hood.  I've written about these two lovely ladies before as they were instrumental for helping me get my bat milk work up and running during my dissertation!