WORLD SCIENCE
WORLD SCIENCE
"Long Before It's In the Papers"
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Why for some animals, sex is worth waiting for
August
17, 2005
Special to World
Science
Some
animals,
in
seeming
violation
of
evolutionary
logic
and
every
natural
instinct,
patiently
forego
sex
until
and
unless
they
win
a
place
at
the
top
of
their
group's
pecking
order.
Researchers
are
learning
why
this
might
be.
Cornell University's P.M. Buxton says clownfish have arranged such a predictable, orderly way of climbing their social ladder that waiting to breed makes sense. Each of the two to six clownfish that typically form a clownfish group, which lives in protective coral reef niches, occupies a separate rung on a hierarchy. Only the top pair breeds, possibly because additional breeders would create crowding or resource problems.
The rules for who gets which rung are simple: newest members go to the bottom, and nobody rises until and unless someone above them dies or leaves, in which case everyone below moves up one step.
The system, Buston calculates, gives everyone a reasonable chance of not only eventually breeding, but also of inheriting precious territory. The findings are described in the May issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.
A summary of the paper (fairly technical) can be found here.
—EJL
Front image courtesy U.S. Geological Survey
WORLD SCIENCE
"Long
Before It's In the Papers"
