We are used to thinking that the evolution of life follows a pre-established line, which leads the organisms most adapted to the environment to evolve and develop new strategies to face new and old challenges. However this is one simplistic view of evolution./b>
Darwin himself clarified, within his essays, that evolution does not always follow the most obvious and simple path to allow organisms to adapt to a problem. Furthermore, species do not always evolve gradually or in an easily perceptible manner, as all scholars who analyze cryptic species. Groups of animals so similar to themselves that they have been mistaken for years as belonging to the same species.
A new report, published on Science magazine, however, it further complicated the picture, clarifying how one of the main drivers of evolution – in addition to competition between species, the environment and sexual competition – is the innate curiosity of organisms.
As it is in fact possible to read in the press release released at the same time as the article, scientists believe that certain animal species have undergone multiple speciation events – and in step with evolution – due to their curiosity and exploratory behavior. In fact, going in search of new environments and new resources can lead organisms to find various new types of habitats, which push for change.
To confirm this hypothesis, scientists analyzed one of the most “diverse” groups of organisms ever: cichlid fish which inhabit the rivers and lakes of central and western Africa.
“The cichlids of Lake Tanganyika in Africa show extraordinary diversity in terms of shape, diet, habitat and coloration. This allows them to occupy various ecological niches and therefore engage in less competition with each other” the researchers clarified in their press release.
The professor’s team led this research Walter of Salzburgprofessor of animal biology atUniversity of Basel. For nine months, this team followed the exploratory behavior of 57 different species of cichlids, which stood out due to their propensity for exploration.
To follow these animals, scientists had to use micro-cameras and carry out hundreds of hours of filming with protagonists 700 small fish caught from Lake Tanganyika (each of them had been filmed for a minimum of 15 minutes).
Eventually, scientists realized that the species they tended to explore the most had genetic mutations which predisposed them to swim farther and longer, genes which in turn linked them directly to other species, which had these characteristics. This leads to the tendency to explore – at least in Lake Tanganica – it is a hereditary characteristic of cichlids, given that in fact it is a good adaptation to obtain more space, food reserves and the possibility of reproducing.
“Overall, large differences in exploratory behavior were observed between cichlid species, and these differences were also confirmed under laboratory conditions” the researchers clarified. For example, species that live near coasts are more curious than elongated species that live in open water, making it clear that animal behavior – and in this particular case, curiosity – is a driving force of evolution.
Among other things, it seems that the mutation found in the gene cacng5bfundamental for the brain of fish and which leads the most curious cichlids to evolve, is very similar to the basic structure of a variant of the same gene, present in other vertebrates. Scientists are therefore trying to determine whether this type of gene could be responsible for innate human curiosity and some psychiatric diseases, such as schizophrenia.
Cichlids are well known within the scientific community. They are among the animals most studied by zoologists and evolutionary biologists and are known for being among the vertebrates with the greatest number of species.
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