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Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots
The animal world is full of brilliant colours and striking patterns that serve to hide individuals or attract the attention of others. False eyespots are pervasive across a variety of animal taxa and are among nature's most conspicuous markings. Understanding the adaptive significance of eyespo...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3722912/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23887772 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep02259 |
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author | Lönnstedt, Oona M. McCormick, Mark I. Chivers, Douglas P. |
author_facet | Lönnstedt, Oona M. McCormick, Mark I. Chivers, Douglas P. |
author_sort | Lönnstedt, Oona M. |
collection | PubMed |
description | The animal world is full of brilliant colours and striking patterns that serve to hide individuals or attract the attention of others. False eyespots are pervasive across a variety of animal taxa and are among nature's most conspicuous markings. Understanding the adaptive significance of eyespots has long fascinated evolutionary ecologists. Here we show for the first time that the size of eyespots is plastic and increases upon exposure to predators. Associated with the growth of eyespots there is a corresponding reduction in growth of eyes in juvenile Ambon damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis. These morphological changes likely direct attacks away from the head region. Exposure to predators also induced changes in prey behaviour and morphology. Such changes could prevent or deter attacks and increase burst speed, aiding in escape. Damselfish exposed to predators had drastically higher survival suffering only 10% mortality while controls suffered 60% mortality 72 h after release. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3722912 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-37229122013-07-26 Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots Lönnstedt, Oona M. McCormick, Mark I. Chivers, Douglas P. Sci Rep Article The animal world is full of brilliant colours and striking patterns that serve to hide individuals or attract the attention of others. False eyespots are pervasive across a variety of animal taxa and are among nature's most conspicuous markings. Understanding the adaptive significance of eyespots has long fascinated evolutionary ecologists. Here we show for the first time that the size of eyespots is plastic and increases upon exposure to predators. Associated with the growth of eyespots there is a corresponding reduction in growth of eyes in juvenile Ambon damselfish, Pomacentrus amboinensis. These morphological changes likely direct attacks away from the head region. Exposure to predators also induced changes in prey behaviour and morphology. Such changes could prevent or deter attacks and increase burst speed, aiding in escape. Damselfish exposed to predators had drastically higher survival suffering only 10% mortality while controls suffered 60% mortality 72 h after release. Nature Publishing Group 2013-07-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3722912/ /pubmed/23887772 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep02259 Text en Copyright © 2013, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Lönnstedt, Oona M. McCormick, Mark I. Chivers, Douglas P. Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots |
title | Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots |
title_full | Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots |
title_fullStr | Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots |
title_full_unstemmed | Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots |
title_short | Predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots |
title_sort | predator-induced changes in the growth of eyes and false eyespots |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3722912/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23887772 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep02259 |
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