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Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges
The ability of invertebrates to discriminate quantities is poorly studied, and it is unknown whether other phyla possess the same richness and sophistication of quantification mechanisms observed in vertebrates. The dune snail, Theba pisana, occupies a harsh habitat characterised by sparse vegetatio...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7881015/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33580099 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82249-6 |
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author | Bisazza, Angelo Gatto, Elia |
author_facet | Bisazza, Angelo Gatto, Elia |
author_sort | Bisazza, Angelo |
collection | PubMed |
description | The ability of invertebrates to discriminate quantities is poorly studied, and it is unknown whether other phyla possess the same richness and sophistication of quantification mechanisms observed in vertebrates. The dune snail, Theba pisana, occupies a harsh habitat characterised by sparse vegetation and diurnal soil temperatures well above the thermal tolerance of this species. To survive, a snail must locate and climb one of the rare tall herbs each dawn and spend the daytime hours in an elevated refuge position. Based on their ecology, we predicted that dune snails would prefer larger to smaller groups of refuges. We simulated shelter choice under controlled laboratory conditions. Snails’ acuity in discriminating quantity of shelters was comparable to that of mammals and birds, reaching the 4 versus 5 item discrimination, suggesting that natural selection could drive the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities even in small-brained animals if these functions have a high survival value. In a subsequent series of experiments, we investigated whether snails used numerical information or based their decisions upon continuous quantities, such as cumulative surface, density or convex hull, which co-varies with number. Though our results tend to underplay the role of these continuous cues, behavioural data alone are insufficient to determine if dune snails were using numerical information, leaving open the question of whether gastropod molluscans possess elementary abilities for numerical processing. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7881015 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78810152021-02-16 Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges Bisazza, Angelo Gatto, Elia Sci Rep Article The ability of invertebrates to discriminate quantities is poorly studied, and it is unknown whether other phyla possess the same richness and sophistication of quantification mechanisms observed in vertebrates. The dune snail, Theba pisana, occupies a harsh habitat characterised by sparse vegetation and diurnal soil temperatures well above the thermal tolerance of this species. To survive, a snail must locate and climb one of the rare tall herbs each dawn and spend the daytime hours in an elevated refuge position. Based on their ecology, we predicted that dune snails would prefer larger to smaller groups of refuges. We simulated shelter choice under controlled laboratory conditions. Snails’ acuity in discriminating quantity of shelters was comparable to that of mammals and birds, reaching the 4 versus 5 item discrimination, suggesting that natural selection could drive the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities even in small-brained animals if these functions have a high survival value. In a subsequent series of experiments, we investigated whether snails used numerical information or based their decisions upon continuous quantities, such as cumulative surface, density or convex hull, which co-varies with number. Though our results tend to underplay the role of these continuous cues, behavioural data alone are insufficient to determine if dune snails were using numerical information, leaving open the question of whether gastropod molluscans possess elementary abilities for numerical processing. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-02-12 /pmc/articles/PMC7881015/ /pubmed/33580099 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82249-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Bisazza, Angelo Gatto, Elia Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges |
title | Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges |
title_full | Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges |
title_fullStr | Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges |
title_full_unstemmed | Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges |
title_short | Continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (Mollusca: Gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges |
title_sort | continuous versus discrete quantity discrimination in dune snail (mollusca: gastropoda) seeking thermal refuges |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7881015/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33580099 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82249-6 |
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