Data from: Variation in growth of Damaraland mole-rats is explained by competition rather than by functional specialization for different tasks

In some eusocial insect societies, adaptation to the division of labour
results in multimodal size variation among workers. It has been suggested
that variation in size and growth among non-breeders in naked and
Damaraland mole-rats may similarly reflect functional divergence
associated with different cooperative tasks. However, it is unclear
whether individual growth rates are multimodally distributed (as would be
expected if variation in growth is associated with specialization for
different tasks) or whether variation in growth is unimodally distributed,
and is related to differences in the social and physical environment (as
would be predicted if there are individual differences in growth but no
discrete differences in developmental pathways). Here, we show that growth
trajectories of non-breeding Damaraland mole-rats vary widely, and that
their distribution is unimodal, contrary to the suggestion that variation
in growth is the result of differentiation into discrete castes. Though
there is no evidence of discrete variation in growth, social factors
appear to exert important effects on growth rates and age-specific size,
which are both reduced in large social groups.