Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 15, 2026
07:21
Automated Interactive Video Playback for Studies of Animal Communication
Published on: February 9, 2011
Complexity, pattern, and evolutionary trade-offs in animal aggregation
J K Parrish1, L Edelstein-Keshet
1Zoology Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. jparrish@u.washington.edu
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|April 2, 1999
Summary
Animal aggregations display complex group behaviors. Understanding if these emergent properties are functional or mere patterns requires integrating theoretical models with empirical studies of individual choices within groups.
Area of Science:
- Biology
- Ecology
- Theoretical Biology
Background:
- Animal aggregations are a striking biological pattern.
- Historically viewed as evolutionarily advantageous, offering benefits like protection and mate choice, balanced by resource costs.
- Aggregations function as integrated wholes, exhibiting complex behaviors beyond individual capabilities.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether all emergent properties of animal aggregations are functional or if some are simply patterns.
- To address the dichotomy between functional emergent properties and non-functional patterns in collective animal behavior.
Main Methods:
- Application of complexity theory to understand self-organization in large populations.
- Theoretical and modeling studies.
- Empirical research on individual choices and trajectories within group constraints.
Main Results:
- Complexity theory suggests large populations can self-organize into aggregations.
- These aggregations can generate patterns, store information, and perform collective decision-making.
- The study questions the functional significance of all observed emergent properties.
Conclusions:
- Distinguishing functional emergent properties from mere patterns in animal aggregations is a key challenge.
- Future research must integrate theoretical, modeling, and empirical approaches.
- Understanding individual choices within group constraints is crucial for resolving this dilemma.
Related Concept Videos
01:20Mate Choice
Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.
00:48Optimal Foraging
How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
00:57Inclusive Fitness
Most altruistic behavior—in which one animal helps another at a cost to themselves—occurs between relatives. Scientists think these altruistic behaviors evolved because they increase the inclusive fitness of the animal providing help.
00:58Symbiosis
Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...
02:39Predator-Prey Interactions
Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.Although predation is commonly associated with carnivory, for...
01:54Convergent Evolution
Evolution shapes the features of organisms over time, ensuring that they are suited for the environments in which they live. Sometimes, selection pressure leads to the rise of similar but unrelated adaptations in organisms with no recent common ancestors, a process known as convergent evolution.The structures that arise from convergent evolution are called analogous structures. They are similar in function even if they are dissimilar in structure. Further, structures can be analogous while also...