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How colonial animals evolve
Carl Simpson1, Amalia Herrera-Cubilla2, Jeremy B C Jackson2,3,4,5
1University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder 265 UCB Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
Science Advances
|January 15, 2020
Summary
Colonial animals evolve differently than solitary ones. In bryozoans, colony traits are inherited, but module traits are not, meaning colony evolution dominates over module evolution.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary biology
- Animal behavior
- Marine biology
Background:
- Modular colonial animals, like corals and bryozoans, present an evolutionary puzzle due to their dual reproductive strategies: asexual module proliferation and sexual colony reproduction.
- This reproductive duality creates evolutionary tension, as natural selection acts on both individual modules and the entire colony.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how this evolutionary conflict is resolved in modular colonial animals.
- To compare the evolutionary potential of module-level versus colony-level traits.
Main Methods:
- A common garden experiment was conducted using two species of the bryozoan *Stylopoma*.
- The heritability of module- and colony-level traits was assessed.
Main Results:
- Quantitatively distinct differences were observed in the evolutionary potential of modular and colony traits.
- Individual module traits showed no heritability from parent to daughter modules.
- Colony traits exhibited strong heritability from parent to offspring colonies.
Conclusions:
- Colony-level evolution is dominant in the studied bryozoan species.
- The lack of heritability in module traits prevents evolutionary change from accumulating at the module level, reinforcing colony-level selection.
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