DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jxbf
title: No evidence for kin selection as an explanation for social group formation in clown anemonefish

description: Social groups in which some individuals forgo reproduction and others
 reproduce are one of the most remarkable products of evolution. To fully
 understand these social groups, we must understand both why non-breeders
 tolerate their situation and why breeders tolerate non-breeders. In
 general, breeders tolerate non-breeders because they help provision the
 breeders’ offspring or the breeders themselves, but in some vertebrate
 societies, the benefits that breeders accrue from non-breeders are
 surprisingly hard to detect. This raises the question: Why do breeders
 tolerate non-breeders in such societies? Here, we test the hypothesis that
 breeders of the clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula) will tolerate
 non-breeders because they are distant relatives who go on to inherit the
 territory. We use 40 polymorphic microsatellite loci to assess the
 pairwise relatedness of 683 individuals from 203 groups. The dataset
 includes all pairwise relatedness values within our sample population, as
 well as distances between groups. We show that the mean pairwise
 relatedness among individuals from the same group is effectively zero, and
 no different from that found among individuals from the same reef or that
 found among individuals from the population at large. Further, we show
 that the mean pairwise relatedness found among breeder/breeder dyads is no
 different from that found among breeder/non-breeder dyads or that found
 among non-breeder/non-breeder dyads. We conclude that kin selection does
 not explain why breeders tolerate non-breeders in the clown anemonefish,
 and suggest that the explanation must lie with other, as yet untested,
 hypotheses: within-generation bet-hedging or mutualist-mediated benefits.
description: # No evidence for kin selection as an explanation for social group
 formation in clown anemonefish Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jxbf](10.5061/dryad.6t1g1jxbf) ## Description of the
 data and file structure The data was collected to understand relatedness
 structures in a population of clown anemonefish in Papua New Guinea. Fin
 clips were taken from more than 600 adults, subadults, and juveniles, and
 relatedness was determined using microsatellite markers.  ### Files and
 variables #### File: KinSelection_Apercula_Rueger_et_al_2025.xlsx
 **Description:** Individual and associated group and reef ID for two dyad
 members for all combinations of sampled fish. The file also includes the
 maturity of the individual and dyad distance. ##### Variables | Ind1FishID
 | ID of the first dyad member | | :---------------- |
 :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Ind2FishID | ID of the second dyad member | | Ind1Group | Group ID of the first dyad member | | Ind1Rank | Dominance rank of the first dyad member | | Ind2Group | Group ID of the second dyad member | | Ind2Rank | Dominance rank of the second dyad member | | wang\_relatedness | Dyad relatedness between first and second dyad member using Wang relatedness estimator | | Reef1 | Inshore reef in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea, where the first dyad member was located upon sampling | | Reef2 | Inshore reef in Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea, where the second dyad member was located upon sampling | | Location | Relative location of first and second dyad member (same reef, same group, different group) | | Maturity\_Ind1 | Maturity status of first dyad member upon sampling (adult, juvenile) | | Maturity\_Ind2 | Maturity status of second dyad member upon sampling (adult, juvenile) | | Pairing | Combined maturity status of the dyad | | Distance\_m | Distance between the groups of first and second dyad member (m) | ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * N/A Data was derived from the following sources: * N/A