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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1131862
INTRO: Can a snake in Thailand influence the evolution of a snake in the Philippines even if the two species never cross paths? According to a new study, the answer may be yes. The research suggests that migratory predators can act as evolutionary “messengers”, carrying their avoidance behavior across continents and linking the fates of species separated by thousands of kilometers.
The findings challenge a longstanding assumption in mimicry theory and open the door to a hidden world of long-distance evolutionary relationships connecting distant ecosystems through migration.
To understand how a species evolved, biologists naturally consider factors such as its environment, its evolutionary history, and the species living alongside it. It is easy therefore to overlook the possibility that its evolution may have been affected by a species living thousands of kilometers away.
A new study led by PhD. student Akiva Topper, Dr. Yotam Ben-Oren, and Dr. Oren Kolodny of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem challenges a basic intuition in evolutionary biology: that species must live in the same place to co-evolve. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research demonstrates how migratory predators can create evolutionary connections between species that never geographically overlap.
The study focuses on mimicry, a phenomenon in which different species evolve similar warning signals, such as colors, patterns, sounds, or behaviors, to deter predators. Traditionally, mimicry has been understood as a local process that requires species to share the same predators in the same place. However, Topper, Ben-Oren and Kolodny propose that migratory predators may carry learned or inherited avoidance behaviors across continents, effectively linking distant species through shared selective pressures.
Using computer simulations, the researchers modeled two geographically separate populations of defended prey connected by migratory predators. Their results demonstrated that predators moving between regions can promote the evolution of shared warning signals even when the prey species themselves never meet.
"Our findings suggest that species do not necessarily have to coexist geographically in order to coevolve," the authors said. "Migratory agents that travel between locations may effectively connect distant ecosystems, allowing evolutionary interactions to occur across large geographic scales." (MORE - no ads)
INTRO: Can a snake in Thailand influence the evolution of a snake in the Philippines even if the two species never cross paths? According to a new study, the answer may be yes. The research suggests that migratory predators can act as evolutionary “messengers”, carrying their avoidance behavior across continents and linking the fates of species separated by thousands of kilometers.
The findings challenge a longstanding assumption in mimicry theory and open the door to a hidden world of long-distance evolutionary relationships connecting distant ecosystems through migration.
To understand how a species evolved, biologists naturally consider factors such as its environment, its evolutionary history, and the species living alongside it. It is easy therefore to overlook the possibility that its evolution may have been affected by a species living thousands of kilometers away.
A new study led by PhD. student Akiva Topper, Dr. Yotam Ben-Oren, and Dr. Oren Kolodny of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem challenges a basic intuition in evolutionary biology: that species must live in the same place to co-evolve. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research demonstrates how migratory predators can create evolutionary connections between species that never geographically overlap.
The study focuses on mimicry, a phenomenon in which different species evolve similar warning signals, such as colors, patterns, sounds, or behaviors, to deter predators. Traditionally, mimicry has been understood as a local process that requires species to share the same predators in the same place. However, Topper, Ben-Oren and Kolodny propose that migratory predators may carry learned or inherited avoidance behaviors across continents, effectively linking distant species through shared selective pressures.
Using computer simulations, the researchers modeled two geographically separate populations of defended prey connected by migratory predators. Their results demonstrated that predators moving between regions can promote the evolution of shared warning signals even when the prey species themselves never meet.
"Our findings suggest that species do not necessarily have to coexist geographically in order to coevolve," the authors said. "Migratory agents that travel between locations may effectively connect distant ecosystems, allowing evolutionary interactions to occur across large geographic scales." (MORE - no ads)