Dissertation Research: The Evolutionary Significance of Filial Cannibalism in Fishes With Parental Care

论文研究：有父母照顾的鱼类的孝顺同类相食的进化意义

• 批准号: 0608156
• 负责人: H. Jane Brockmann
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-05-01 至 2008-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0608156&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Evolutionary; Significance; Filial

Intellectual Merit: According to modern theories of evolution, selection is expected to favor characteristics that increase an organisms ability to survive and successfully reproduce. Parental care is one such behavior thought to increase the reproductive success of individuals. Because parental care is thought to increase offspring survival, it is surprising that filial cannibalism, the consumption of ones own offspring, commonly co-occurs with parental care in a range of taxa. Indeed, its difficult to imagine many situations in which regularly consuming ones own young represents an adaptive strategy. Filial cannibalism has been particularly well documented in fishes with paternal care, and because caring fathers often consume more offspring than die naturally, filial cannibalism does not solely serve to clean the nest of dead eggs. Currently, filial cannibalism in fishes is thought to provide males with energy from eggs that they re-invest into future reproduction and survival, however evidence for this hypothesis is mixed and there are few alternative hypotheses. Despite nearly thirty years of theoretical development and empirical work, filial cannibalism remains an evolutionary conundrum. The proposed work will explore the evolutionary significance of filial cannibalism through (1) a re-examination of current theory with a focus on the survival and/or reproductive consequences of cannibalism, (2) the development and empirical examination of an alternative hypothesis related to selective cannibalism of low quality eggs, and (3) the development of a synthetic mathematical model of filial cannibalism that simultaneously incorporates a range of potential costs and benefits of cannibalism. This work will provide insight into the evolution of filial cannibalism, and ultimately the evolution of paternal care. Broader Impacts: The proposed work will facilitate international collaboration with students and researchers at the University of Helsinki and the University of Oxford. In addition to the professional development of a graduate student, the proposed work will involve the training of multiple undergraduates in behavioral data collection and analysis, and we will continue to place a high priority on recruiting students from backgrounds typically underrepresented in the scientific disciplines. We will continue to participate in the University of Floridas Student Science Training Program, which will allow high school students to assist with the dissertation research described in this proposal, and the proposed work will facilitate continued participation in mentoring, curriculum development, and teaching at the grade-school level. This dissertation research has led to three papers and three presentations at international scientific conferences. Finally, this work is of interest to the general public, and the completed dissertation work has already been featured in 2 aquarist publications.This project is funded by the Division of Integrative Organismal Biology and the Office of International Science and Engineering.

智力优势：根据现代进化理论，自然选择会倾向于增加生物体生存和成功繁殖能力的特征。父母的照顾就是这样一种行为，被认为可以提高个体的繁殖成功率。因为父母的照顾被认为可以增加后代的存活率，所以令人惊讶的是，在一系列的分类群中，子女吃自己的后代，通常与父母的照顾同时发生。事实上，很难想象在许多情况下，经常食用自己的幼崽是一种适应性策略。在有父亲照顾的鱼类中，孝顺的同类相食现象已经得到了很好的记录，而且因为有爱心的父亲通常会吃掉比自然死亡更多的后代，所以孝顺的同类相食现象不仅仅是为了清理巢中的死蛋。目前，在鱼类中的子同类相食被认为是提供男性从鸡蛋的能量，他们重新投资到未来的繁殖和生存，但这一假设的证据是混合的，有几个替代假设。尽管近三十年的理论发展和实证工作，子相食仍然是一个进化难题。拟议的工作将通过（1）重新审视当前理论，重点是食人的生存和/或生殖后果，（2）发展和实证检验与低质量鸡蛋的选择性食人相关的替代假设，以及（3）开发一个关于子辈同类相食的综合数学模型，该模型同时包含了同类相食的一系列潜在成本和收益。这项工作将提供深入了解子食人的演变，并最终演变的父亲照顾。更广泛的影响：拟议的工作将促进与赫尔辛基大学和牛津大学的学生和研究人员的国际合作。除了研究生的专业发展外，拟议的工作还将涉及对多名本科生进行行为数据收集和分析方面的培训，我们将继续高度重视招收来自科学学科中通常代表性不足的背景的学生。我们将继续参与佛罗里达大学学生科学培训计划，这将使高中学生协助本提案中描述的论文研究，拟议的工作将促进继续参与指导，课程开发和小学水平的教学。本论文的研究导致了三篇论文和三个国际科学会议上的演讲。最后，这项工作是感兴趣的一般公众，完成的论文工作已经在2 aquarist出版物的特色。这个项目是由综合有机生物学和国际科学与工程办公室的部门资助。