1
|
Green PA. Behavior and morphology combine to influence energy dissipation in mantis shrimp (Stomatopoda). J Exp Biol 2024; 227:jeb247063. [PMID: 38722696 PMCID: PMC11128283 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.247063] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2023] [Accepted: 04/02/2024] [Indexed: 05/28/2024]
Abstract
Animals deliver and withstand physical impacts in diverse behavioral contexts, from competing rams clashing their antlers together to archerfish impacting prey with jets of water. Though the ability of animals to withstand impact has generally been studied by focusing on morphology, behaviors may also influence impact resistance. Mantis shrimp exchange high-force strikes on each other's coiled, armored telsons (tailplates) during contests over territory. Prior work has shown that telson morphology has high impact resistance. I hypothesized that the behavior of coiling the telson also contributes to impact energy dissipation. By measuring impact dynamics from high-speed videos of strikes exchanged during contests between freely moving animals, I found that approximately 20% more impact energy was dissipated by the telson as compared with findings from a prior study that focused solely on morphology. This increase is likely due to behavior: because the telson is lifted off the substrate, the entire body flexes after contact, dissipating more energy than exoskeletal morphology does on its own. While variation in the degree of telson coil did not affect energy dissipation, proportionally more energy was dissipated from higher velocity strikes and from strikes from more massive appendages. Overall, these findings show that analysis of both behavior and morphology is crucial to understanding impact resistance, and suggest future research on the evolution of structure and function under the selective pressure of biological impacts.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- P. A. Green
- UC Santa Barbara, Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
- Brown University, Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Providence, RI 02912, USA
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Khan RH, Rhodes JS, Girard IA, Schwartz NE, Garland T. Does Behavior Evolve First? Correlated Responses to Selection for Voluntary Wheel-Running Behavior in House Mice. ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY PHYSIOLOGY 2024; 97:97-117. [PMID: 38728689 DOI: 10.1086/730153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2024]
Abstract
AbstractHow traits at multiple levels of biological organization evolve in a correlated fashion in response to directional selection is poorly understood, but two popular models are the very general "behavior evolves first" (BEF) hypothesis and the more specific "morphology-performance-behavior-fitness" (MPBF) paradigm. Both acknowledge that selection often acts relatively directly on behavior and that when behavior evolves, other traits will as well but most with some lag. However, this proposition is exceedingly difficult to test in nature. Therefore, we studied correlated responses in the high-runner (HR) mouse selection experiment, in which four replicate lines have been bred for voluntary wheel-running behavior and compared with four nonselected control (C) lines. We analyzed a wide range of traits measured at generations 20-24 (with a focus on new data from generation 22), coinciding with the point at which all HR lines were reaching selection limits (plateaus). Significance levels (226 P values) were compared across trait types by ANOVA, and we used the positive false discovery rate to control for multiple comparisons. This meta-analysis showed that, surprisingly, the measures of performance (including maximal oxygen consumption during forced exercise) showed no evidence of having diverged between the HR and C lines, nor did any of the life history traits (e.g., litter size), whereas body mass had responded (decreased) at least as strongly as wheel running. Overall, results suggest that the HR lines of mice had evolved primarily by changes in motivation rather than performance ability at the time they were reaching selection limits. In addition, neither the BEF model nor the MPBF model of hierarchical evolution provides a particularly good fit to the HR mouse selection experiment.
Collapse
|
3
|
Wei J, Rico-Guevara A, Nicolson SW, Brau F, Damman P, Gorb SN, Wu Z, Wu J. Honey bees switch mechanisms to drink deep nectar efficiently. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2305436120. [PMID: 37459520 PMCID: PMC10372696 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2305436120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/06/2023] [Accepted: 06/10/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
The feeding mechanisms of animals constrain the spectrum of resources that they can exploit profitably. For floral nectar eaters, both corolla depth and nectar properties have marked influence on foraging choices. We report the multiple strategies used by honey bees to efficiently extract nectar at the range of sugar concentrations and corolla depths they face in nature. Honey bees can collect nectar by dipping their hairy tongues or capillary loading when lapping it, or they can attach the tongue to the wall of long corollas and directly suck the nectar along the tongue sides. The honey bee feeding apparatus is unveiled as a multifunctional tool that can switch between lapping and sucking nectar according to the instantaneous ingesting efficiency, which is determined by the interplay of nectar-mouth distance and sugar concentration. These versatile feeding mechanisms allow honey bees to extract nectar efficiently from a wider range of floral resources than previously appreciated and endow them with remarkable adaptability to diverse foraging environments.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Jiangkun Wei
- School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen518107, People’s Republic of China
| | - Alejandro Rico-Guevara
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98195
- Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98105
| | - Susan W. Nicolson
- Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Hatfield0028, South Africa
| | - Fabian Brau
- Université libre de Bruxelles, Nonlinear Physical Chemistry Unit, CP231, Brussels1050, Belgium
| | - Pascal Damman
- Université de Mons, Laboratoire InFlux, Mons7000, Belgium
| | - Stanislav N. Gorb
- Functional Morphology and Biomechanics, Department of Zoology, Kiel University, Kiel24118, Germany
| | - Zhigang Wu
- School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen518107, People’s Republic of China
| | - Jianing Wu
- School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen518107, People’s Republic of China
- School of Advanced Manufacturing, Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen518107, People’s Republic of China
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Dinh JP, Patek SN. Weapon performance and contest assessment strategies of the cavitating snaps in snapping shrimp. Funct Ecol 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.14190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jason P. Dinh
- Biology Department Duke University Durham North Carolina USA
| | - S. N. Patek
- Biology Department Duke University Durham North Carolina USA
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Studies of the Behavioral Sequences: The Neuroethological Morphology Concept Crossing Ethology and Functional Morphology. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12111336. [PMID: 35681801 PMCID: PMC9179564 DOI: 10.3390/ani12111336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2022] [Revised: 05/19/2022] [Accepted: 05/20/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
Simple Summary Behavioral sequences analysis is a relevant method for quantifying the behavioral repertoire of animals to respond to the classical Tinbergen’s four questions. Research in ethology and functional morphology intercepts at the level of analysis of behaviors through the recording and interpretation of data from of movement sequence studies with various types of imaging and sensor systems. We propose the concept of Neuroethological morphology to build a holistic framework for understanding animal behavior. This concept integrates ethology (including behavioral ecology and neuroethology) with functional morphology (including biomechanics and physics) to provide a heuristic approach in behavioral biology. Abstract Postures and movements have been one of the major modes of human expression for understanding and depicting organisms in their environment. In ethology, behavioral sequence analysis is a relevant method to describe animal behavior and to answer Tinbergen’s four questions testing the causes of development, mechanism, adaptation, and evolution of behaviors. In functional morphology (and in biomechanics), the analysis of behavioral sequences establishes the motor pattern and opens the discussion on the links between “form” and “function”. We propose here the concept of neuroethological morphology in order to build a holistic framework for understanding animal behavior. This concept integrates ethology with functional morphology, and physics. Over the past hundred years, parallel developments in both disciplines have been rooted in the study of the sequential organization of animal behavior. This concept allows for testing genetic, epigenetic, and evo-devo predictions of phenotypic traits between structures, performances, behavior, and fitness in response to environmental constraints. Based on a review of the literature, we illustrate this concept with two behavioral cases: (i) capture behavior in squamates, and (ii) the ritualistic throat display in lizards.
Collapse
|
6
|
Cuban D, Hewes AE, Sargent AJ, Groom DJE, Rico-Guevara A. On the feeding biomechanics of nectarivorous birds. J Exp Biol 2022; 225:274052. [PMID: 35048977 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.243096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Nectar-feeding birds employ unique mechanisms to collect minute liquid rewards hidden within floral structures. In recent years, techniques developed to study drinking mechanisms in hummingbirds have prepared the groundwork for investigating nectar feeding across birds. In most avian nectarivores, fluid intake mechanisms are understudied or simply unknown beyond hypotheses based on their morphological traits, such as their tongues, which are semi-tubular in sunbirds, frayed-tipped in honeyeaters and brush-tipped in lorikeets. Here, we use hummingbirds as a case study to identify and describe the proposed drinking mechanisms to examine the role of those peculiar traits, which will help to disentangle nectar-drinking hypotheses for other groups. We divide nectar drinking into three stages: (1) liquid collection, (2) offloading of aliquots into the mouth and (3) intraoral transport to where the fluid can be swallowed. Investigating the entire drinking process is crucial to fully understand how avian nectarivores feed; nectar-feeding not only involves the collection of nectar with the tongue, but also includes the mechanisms necessary to transfer and move the liquid through the bill and into the throat. We highlight the potential for modern technologies in comparative anatomy [such as microcomputed tomography (μCT) scanning] and biomechanics (such as tracking BaSO4-stained nectar via high-speed fluoroscopy) to elucidate how disparate clades have solved this biophysical puzzle through parallel, convergent or alternative solutions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- David Cuban
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Life Sciences Building, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98105, USA.,Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Ornithology Department, 4300 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
| | - Amanda E Hewes
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Life Sciences Building, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98105, USA.,Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Ornithology Department, 4300 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
| | - Alyssa J Sargent
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Life Sciences Building, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98105, USA.,Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Ornithology Department, 4300 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
| | - Derrick J E Groom
- Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132, USA
| | - Alejandro Rico-Guevara
- Department of Biology, University of Washington, Life Sciences Building, Box 351800, Seattle, WA 98105, USA.,Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Ornithology Department, 4300 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Crofts SB, Stankowich T. Stabbing Spines: A review of the Biomechanics and Evolution of Defensive Spines. Integr Comp Biol 2021; 61:655-667. [PMID: 34038530 DOI: 10.1093/icb/icab099] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Spines are ubiquitous in both plants and animals, and while most spines were likely originally used for defense, over time many have been modified in a variety of ways. Here we take an integrative approach to review the form, function, and evolution of spines as a defensive strategy in order to make new connections between physical mechanisms and functional behavior. While this review focuses on spines in mammals, we reference and draw ideas from the literature on spines in other taxa, including plants. We begin by exploring the biomechanics of defensive spines, their varied functions, and nondefensive modifications. We pay particular attention to the mechanics involved in passive puncture and the ways organisms have overcome limitations associated with the low energy input. We then focus on the ecological, physiological, and behavioral factors that promote the evolution of spiny defenses, including predator- and habitat-mediated hypotheses. While there is considerable evidence to support both, studies have generally found that (1) defensive spines are usually effective against one class of attacker (e.g., larger predators) but ineffective against or even facilitate predation by others and (2) species that are more visible or exposed to predators are under much stronger selection to evolve defensive spines or some other robust defense. What type of defensive morphology that evolves, however, is less predictable and probably strongly dependent on both the dominant source of predation and the habitat structure of the organism (e.g., arboreal, terrestrial, and fossorial). We then explore traits that often are correlated with defensive spines and armor, potentially forming armor syndromes, suites of traits that evolve together with body armor in a correlated fashion. In mammals, these include aposematic warning coloration, locomotion style, diet, metabolic rate, and relative brain size. Finally, we encourage integration of mechanistic, behavioral, and evolutionary studies of defensive spines and suggest future avenues of research in the biomechanics, evolution, and behavior of spines and spiny organisms.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Theodore Stankowich
- Department of Biological Sciences, California State University Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA
| |
Collapse
|