BioQuakes

AP Biology class blog for discussing current research in Biology

Tag: guppy

Guppy Social Circles: The Evolutionary Benefit of Tight-Knit Groups

By

On March 1, 2017

In Student Post

It is often said that humans are social creatures.  But why is this?  How do other species help substantiate the need for social interaction and friendship among humans?  What direct benefits result from strong ties between individuals?  To grapple with these questions, Rob Heathcote, an animal behavior researcher at the University of Exeter, conducted the following experiment.

Guppies swimming in a group of three by Per Harald Olsen, source

Heathcote and his team traveled to Trinidad, an island in the Caribbean that is home to the small freshwater Trinidadian guppy.  But why this place and this species you might be asking.  In response, Heathcote states that, “These guppies live in environments that have tons of predators around, so basically it really sucks to be a guppy. In some places they live, you’ll be watching these shoals of guppies and a predator is attacking them every twenty or thirty seconds or so.”  With the hypothesis that animals form social groups in order to reduce the risk of being preyed upon, the Trinidadian guppy was the perfect specimen.  However, Heathcote sought to investigate whether the benefits of communal living derived from individual relationships (as in humans) or simply safety in numbers.

The team divided 240 female Trinidadian guppies into smaller groups of fifteen, with each group having its own pool isolated from the rest.  Some fish were left alone while others were spooked with a doll version of a predator known as the pike cichlid.  It was recorded that the groups formed by the guppies exposed to the faux predator were smaller on average when compared to the groups that the unprovoked fish formed.  Therefore, one can conclude that the startled guppies fearing for their lives were more likely to establish stronger social connections between one another.  In other words “Fear of predation drives stable and differentiated social relationships in guppies” (Heathcote et al. in Scientific Reports).

So, guppies can congregate in massive groups to blend and reduce their chances of becoming dinner.  However, congregation itself attracts more and more predators.  Alternatively, as seen in the experimentation, they can hide in smaller social circles of three to four individuals, a sort of family where each guppy has each other’s best interest in mind and where the guppies can effectively communicate.  When drawing parallels between the Trinidadian guppy and humans, it is clear that both species form exclusive clans to ameliorate their lives.  In the words of Jason G. Goldman, “Spending time with a few close friends could outweigh the benefits of blending in with the crowd, particularly in dangerous situations.”

The research results in many follow up questions.  Why do some humans choose to isolate themselves from social interaction altogether?  How can this study relate to international relations?  What really makes humans different from more primitive species?

Guppy Love!

By

On December 4, 2011

In Student Post

Tiger Guppy (domesticated)- CC licensed photo by Leonard Paguia

Guppies (those small, colorful freshwater fish that everyone loves to keep in their fish tanks) have been evolving in the wild for more than 500,000 years, yet one feature has remained constant over all that time. Research conducted by UCLA Biologists has shown that the orange spot found on the wild male guppy has remained not simply the same color, but the same hue of orange since near the beginning of this fish’s existence. The reason for all this effort? That particular shade of orange is the one that female guppies prefer. What is so fascinating about this to biologists is that it proves that evolution is not simply an organisms adaptations to be better suited to its environment.

The two pigments that, when combined, allow a male to have an orange-colored spot are carotenoids (taken in by the guppies through food) and drosopterins (synthesized by the guppies). A higher percentage of carotenoids would make a guppy’s spot appear more yellow, and a higher percentage of drosopterins would make the spot appear more red.

Now one would think that, in order to conserve energy and be able to function more efficiently, a male guppy that had an abundance of carotenoids in its diet would not waste energy on synthesizing drosopterins as it would not need them to have a brightly colored spot. Conversely, one would think that in order to maintain a bright and noticeable spot, a guppy that did not have a lot of carotenoids in its diet would synthesize more drosopterins. However, this is not the case.

As the type and availability of food for male guppies has varied as a result of both time and location (guppies are native to both trinidad and venezuela) they have evolved to match the levels of carotenoids and drosopterins to produce that orange that the females are so attracted to, even if it comes at a high energy cost, or the spot must be more dull to produce the correct shade.

Although we all understand that reproduction is the ultimate goal of all organisms, what these guppies have done over the past half a million years is still not evolution in the way that many of us think about it. What has happened with a great many organisms is that they adapt in ways that make it more easy for them to survive and then these traits become attractive to the opposite sex because their presence indicates that that individual will produce offspring that will also be better suited for its environment. Here, however, male guppies have striven to remain attractive to their mates even when this comes at a high energy cost for many. As a result, the females have not had to change their taste in mates, and the males have been forced to continue playing to their preferences, or risk not reproducing.

Can you think of any other organisms that have adapted to be attractive to mates even when it made them less suited for their environment?

For further reading on the actual experiment conducted by UCLA biologists click here

 

Archives

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

Skip to toolbar