Animals survive by changing looks
Posted on: Friday, 24 July 2009, 14:52 CDT
Animals of the same species who look different from each other may have evolved that way to deter predators, British scientists said.
Distinctly different looking animals within the same species -- known as exuberant polymorphisms
-- can reach double figures within a single animal population, biologist Geoff Oxford of the University of York said in a release Thursday.
A prime example is the Hawaiian Happy-face Spider, which varies from plain yellow to rare types with red, black or white marks, all of which are inherited, Oxford and his team wrote in the journal Evolution.
Oxford and his team suggest the spider evolved polymorphisms to deter predators by presenting them with a large number of visually novel foods. Predators are wary of consuming novel food, Oxford said.
A mutant prey individual that looks different from its fellows has a survival advantage because it will be unfamiliar to predators that will be reluctant to change their diet to accommodate it,
Oxford said.
Source: United Press International
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