Synthesis of Tinbergen’s four questions and the future of sociogenomics

It has been 55 years since Nikolaas Tinbergen formalized the field of ethology by identifying four types of inquiry that address the “how” and “why” of animal behavior from both a contemporary and historical perspective. This framework has been particularly useful in exploring eusocial behavior among insects, due to integration across levels of analysis and timescales of influence. Although the former has proceeded quite deliberately, the latter...