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

智力优势：根据现代进化理论，自然选择倾向于增加生物体生存和成功繁殖能力的特征。亲代抚育被认为是提高个体繁殖成功率的一种行为。由于亲代照顾被认为可以提高后代的存活率，令人惊讶的是，在许多分类群中，孝子同类相食，即吃掉自己的后代，通常与亲代照顾同时发生。事实上，很难想象在很多情况下，经常吃掉自己的孩子是一种适应性策略。在父亲照顾的鱼类中，孝道同类相食的现象尤为明显，因为照顾父亲的父亲通常会吃掉更多的后代，而不是自然死亡，所以孝道同类相食不仅仅是为了清理巢中的死卵。目前，鱼类的同类相食行为被认为是为雄性提供卵子的能量，它们将这些能量重新投入到未来的繁殖和生存中，然而，这一假说的证据是混杂的，而且很少有其他假说。尽管近三十年的理论发展和实证工作，孝道同类相食仍然是一个进化难题。本研究将通过(1)重新审视当前的理论，重点关注同类相食的生存和/或生殖后果；(2)发展和实证检验与低质量卵子选择性同类相食有关的另一种假设；(3)建立了一个综合的数学模型，该模型同时包含了同类相食的一系列潜在成本和收益。这项工作将为了解子女同类相食的进化过程，以及最终的父权照顾的进化过程提供洞见。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，拟议的工作将涉及对多名本科生进行行为数据收集和分析的培训，我们将继续优先考虑招收来自科学学科中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，该计划将允许高中生协助本提案中描述的论文研究，并且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。本论文的研究成果在国际学术会议上发表了三篇论文和三次报告。最后，这项工作是公众感兴趣的，完成的论文工作已经在2个水族馆出版物中出现。本项目由综合生物学部和国际科学与工程办公室资助。

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.