Fish boffins: Big-brain babes are brilliant, but benefit for boys is bijou Aquatic boffins have discovered that increased brain size is only of benefit to female fish and not to males. In a rigorous experiment, the scientists constructed a watery Colosseum for guppies to fight it out against their natural predator, the pike cichlid. Larger brains are typically expected to provide animals with …
Assuming brain size and coloration are indeed linked, expressed in males it stands to reason the big brained females are better at dodging predators. The evolutionary hurdle is in the male line in this case.
The more colourful males are the ones most likely to actually mate. Those males also tend to have the biggest brains due to the brain size/colouration linkage. Those males that are the most successful in avoiding predation, even while more flashy in colour, and make it to the mating season, will pass on their brain size and wiring to the next generation. This will mean that the females of that generation will inherit the predator-evation routines, but will not express the male colouration, making them doubly effective at predator evasion.
Never forget that in nature, especially in the species that work the system by sheer numbers, males are expendable. You only need a couple to produce the next generation, and the harder they're "tested", the better for the species.
Congratulations for making the only reasonable contribution out of 15 comments so far!
I wonder if the male guppies have the personal survival inhibitor of being brave. If they are inclined to attack the pike cichlid, perhaps a wired behaviour that helps to protect the females of it own species, they would tend to have a lower personal survival rate but with the benefit of perhaps having helped decoy the cichlid away from the females who are not so expendable. At a species level this would be a useful strategy since the less fast and smart, as in cautious, males survive for future mating while the less thoughtful and aggressive individuals are reduced in number having sacrificed themselves for the greater good. And reduced pressure on food resources during the coming growth spurt period of the coming generation. Perhaps we will find a ratio of 15:1? Or 15:2 ;-) .....
If this can be seen in many other species
Look how much money she makes and tell me she's stupid. Think about those women PhD students paying their way through "escort" work - intelligence doesn't necessarily manifest itself through rocket science or neurosurgery, sometimes it just leads to the ruthless exploitation of assets.
What the research appears to ignore is a basic common trait of male guppies. Their reproductive drive in very high. They spend an inordinate percentage of their active daytime life pursuing the females for sexual activity while otherwise ignoring their environment. The females generally ignore them and spend all their time browsing for food. The males are very distracted by this imperative drive and likely their larger brain is just even more focused on that activity. Sounds suspiciously like college.
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