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How colonial animals evolve.

Carl Simpson1, Amalia Herrera-Cubilla2, Jeremy B C Jackson2,3,4,5

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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.

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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.