Collaborative Research: A Phylogenetic Analysis of Behavior and Morphology in Anabantid Fishes

行为是生物体进化史的一个重要方面。它决定了交配的时间和地点，是否以及如何养育后代，食用的食物类型以及生活的栖息地。研究人员可以利用行为特征来确定物种之间的关系吗？一些研究人员认为，近亲物种表现出相当相似的行为，而远亲物种则表现出截然不同的行为。从这个意义上说，行为将是构建系统发育的一个很好的工具（尽管未经测试）。然而，许多其他研究人员指出，行为并不是一个很好的家谱关系指标，因为它是可塑的、不稳定的，而且很容易改变。有很多例子表明，物种之间的行为改变导致了物种的形成。拟议的研究将通过比较一组非洲鱼类所表现出的交配和竞争行为，与这些鱼类从解剖学特征中产生的更传统的系统发育，来评估行为数据的系统发育内容。之所以选择这些鱼作为研究对象，是因为之前有很多研究都是以它们为基础的，而且这些鱼表现出丰富的行为。这项研究的结果将引起行为学家、系统学家、进化生物学家和对“先天vs.后天”问题感兴趣的心理学家的极大兴趣。

Behavior is an important aspect of an organism's evolutionary history. It dictates when and where mating will occur, if and how offspring will be nurtured, the types of food eaten, and the habitats lived in. Can researchers use behavioral characteristics to determine anything about the relationships between species? Some researchers argue that the closely-related species exhibit quite similar behaviors, while more distantly- related forms display radically different behaviors. In this sense, behavior would be a good (though untested) tool for constructing phylogenies. However, many other researchers state that behavior would not be a good indicator of genealogical relationships because it is plastic, labile, and easily modified. There have been many instances of behavioral modifications between species that have, for example, led to speciation. The proposed study will evaluate the phylogenetic content of behavioral data by comparing nuptial and agonistic behaviors exhibited by a group of African fishes against a more traditional phylogeny generated for these fishes from anatomical characteristics. These fish were chosen for study because numerous prior studies have been based upon them, and because of the rich repertoire of behaviors these fishes display. The results of the research will be of considerable interest to behavioralists, systematists, evolutionary biologists, and psychologists interested in the question of 'nature vs. nurture.'