Exploring eusociality in a marine vertebrate- relatedness, dispersal and population connectivity in Risor ruber

动物社会组织的顶峰是共生社会，这是一种只有一个演员创造后代的社会制度，由有义务的不育工人和勇士保护和照顾。大多数共生社会性系统存在于陆地无脊椎动物中，如蜜蜂、蚂蚁和黄蜂。唯一已知的真社会性脊椎动物是裸鼠，而唯一已知的真社会性海洋动物是突触属的对虾。到目前为止，还没有记录到真社会性海洋脊椎动物。在这里，我们打算研究一种海洋脊椎动物--长牙虎鱼(Risor Ruber)--是否进化出了一种社会性系统。由于(1)小虎鱼具有亲缘选择的潜力，(2)鲁伯虾在生态上与突触虾相似，占据相似的海绵，并表现出一种神秘的生活方式，没有明显的扩散，因此鲁伯虾是优生社会性的理想候选者。我们将通过研究Carrie Bow Cay、伯利兹以及中美洲堡礁沿线的亲缘关系、扩散和群体行为，来探索R.ruber的幸福性。我们的研究将是第一批关注加勒比海隐底栖珊瑚礁鱼类的研究之一，这一群体在珊瑚礁生态系统中扮演着重要但往往被忽视的角色。因此，不管R.ruber的优惠性如何，我们的研究将为珊瑚礁科学提供关键的基线数据。如果我们在Ruber中发现了优势性，这将为研究海洋脊椎动物的扩散、双相生命周期在海洋环境中的作用以及鱼类和其他脊椎动物的社会和交配系统的进化提供新的研究途径。

The apex of animal social organization is eusociality, a social system where only one cast creates offspring, defended and cared for by obligate sterile workers and warriors. Most eusocial systems occur in terrestrial invertebrates, such as bees, ants and wasps. The only known eusocial vertebrates are naked mole rats, and the only known eusocial marine animals are snapping shrimp in the genus Synalpheus. To date, no eusocial marine vertebrate has been recorded. Here, we propose to examine whether a marine vertebrate, the Tusked goby (Risor ruber), has evolved a eusocial system. R. ruber is an ideal candidate for eusociality because (1) small gobies have the potential for kin selection and (2) R. ruber is ecologically similar to Synalpheus shrimp, occupying similar sponges and exhibiting a cryptic lifestyle with no obvious dispersal. We will explore eusociality in R. ruber by studying relatedness, dispersal and behaviour in groups around Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, as well as along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. Our research will be among the first to focus on a cryptobenthic reef fish in the Caribbean, a group that plays an important, yet often overlooked, role in coral reef ecosystems. Thus, regardless of R. ruber's eusociality, our study will provide critical baseline data for coral reef science. If we discover eusociality in R. ruber, this will lead to new research avenues into the dispersal of marine vertebrates, the role of the biphasic life cycle in marine environments and the evolution of social and mating systems in fishes and other vertebrates.