Changes in local interaction rules during ontogeny underlie the evolution of collective behavior.

ABSTRACT: Collective motion emerges from individual interactions which produce group-wide patterns in behavior. While adaptive changes to collective motion are observed across animal species, how local interactions change when these collective behaviors evolve is poorly understood. Here, we use the Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, which exists as a schooling surface form and a non-schooling cave form, to study differences in how fish alter their swimming in response to neighbors across ontogeny and between evolutionarily diverged populations. We find that surface fish undergo a transition to schooling mediated by changes in the way fish modulate speed and turning relative to neighbors. This transition begins with the tendency to align to neighbors emerging by 28 days post-fertilization and

SUBMITTER: Paz A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10448030 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature