Computer simulation of the evolution of foraging strategies: application to the ichnological record

Hammer, Øyvind

doi:10.26879/98005

Cited by 375 publications

(453 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…[ 44 ]) or a neural network system (e.g. [ 45 ]) that could plausibly reflect cues from chemical gradients rather than complex nervous systems. On the other hand, the large and complex Plagiogmus of figure 2 could hardly have been made by anything other than a bilaterian.…”

Section: The Trace Fossil Record and Its Early Manifestationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early animal evolution and the origins of nervous systems

Budd¹

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Understanding the evolution of early nervous systems is hazardous because we lack good criteria for determining homology between the systems of distant taxa; the timing of the evolutionary events is contested, and thus the relevant ecological and geological settings for them are also unclear. Here I argue that no simple approach will resolve the first issue, but that it remains likely that animals evolved relatively late, and that their nervous systems thus arose during the late Ediacaran, in a context provided by the changing planktonic and benthic environments of the time. The early trace fossil provides the most concrete evidence for early behavioural diversification, but it cannot simply be translated into increasing nervous system complexity: behavioural complexity does not map on a one-to-one basis onto nervous system complexity, both because of possible limitations to behaviour caused by the environment and because we know that even organisms without nervous systems are capable of relatively complex behaviour.

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Section: The Trace Fossil Record and Its Early Manifestationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early animal evolution and the origins of nervous systems

Budd¹

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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“…Looping and meanders are present in many of the studied traces, but show no evidence of stereotypical behavior. Although looping patterns appear to be quite rounded and loop sizes are similar ± suggesting a relatively organized neurological control over looping behavior ± such looping can also occur as a natural result of quasi-random meandering search patterns (Hofmann & Patel 1989;Hammer 1998). These data represent a ®rst step toward analyzing Taphrhelminthopsis's role within suspected larger-scale patterns in the evolution of burrowing behavior, and our interpretations require testing at other sites.…”

Section: Were They Systematically Foraging?mentioning

confidence: 75%

“…Crimes et al 1992). Together with experimental simulations of systematic foraging behavior (Raup & Seilacher 1969;Hammer 1998) goniogram analyses may quantitatively test hypotheses suggesting progressive colonization of deep-sea environments by organisms capable of producing`complex' tracemaking behaviors.…”

Section: Were They Systematically Foraging?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Paleoecology of a large Early Cambrian bioturbator

Hagadorn

Schellenberg

Bottjer

2000

LET

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The Lower Cambrian Poleta Formation in the White‐Inyo Mountains of eastern California contains well‐preserved and laterally extensive exposures of the large looping and meandering trace fossil Taphrhelminthopsis nelsoni n.isp. Such traces are typical features on upper bed surfaces of Lower Cambrian shallow marine sandstones and occur with Ediacaran fossils at other localities. Morphologic, sedimentologic and goniogram analyses suggest that the inferred tracemaker was a large soft‐bodied echinozoan‐ or mollusc‐grade animal with a volume greater than 14 cm 3 that actively grazed or ingested sediment at the sediment‐water interface. Although portions of these traces appear to reflect relatively ‘complex’ behavior, looping patterns are not periodic as expected for a systematic foraging strategy. T. nelsoni traces are patchy in distribution and commonly associated with suspect‐microbial features, suggesting that tracemakers may have been targeting microbial‐based or related concentrations of food resources. Such behavioral patterns are typical of shallow late Neoproterozoic‐early Cambrian settings, and like suspect‐microbial structures are later restricted to deep marine or stressed settings.

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“…Seilacher (1967) proposed a modification of a scheme first proposed by Richter (1928), in which an animal obeys a behavioral ''program,'' expressed as a set of ''commands.'' These controls readily lend themselves to computer simulation (Raup and Seilacher 1969;Papentin and Rö der 1975;Hammer 1998;cf. Hayes 2003;Plotnick 2007).…”

Section: The Gulf Between Ichnology and Behavioralmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behavioral biology of trace fossils

Plotnick¹

2012

Paleobiology

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The potential of the ichnofossil record for exploring the evolution of behavior has never been fully realized. Some of this is due to the nature of the trace fossil record itself. Equally responsible is the separation of ichnology from the relevant areas of modern behavioral biology. The two disciplines have virtually no concepts, methods, or literature in common. The study of animal behavior and its evolution is thus bereft of the rich data and insights of ichnologists.One potential pathway forward is for ichnologists to adopt and adapt the movement ecology paradigm proposed several years ago by Ran Nathan and colleagues. This approach views movement as resulting from interactions of the organism's internal state, its movement abilities, and its sensory capabilities with each other and with the external environment. These interactions produce a movement path. The adoption of this paradigm would place trace fossil studies in a far wider common context for the study of movement, while providing the dimension of the evolution of movement behavior in deep time to neontological studies.A second component of this integration would be for paleontologists to develop ataphonomy of behaviorthat places in a phylogenetic context the range of possible behaviors that organisms can carry out and assesses the potential of each of these behaviors in leaving a diagnostic trace. Parallel to other taphonomic concepts, this approach assesses the preservation potential of particular behaviors;behavioral fidelityis the extent to which trace fossils preserve these original behavioral signals.

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Computer simulation of the evolution of foraging strategies: application to the ichnological record

Cited by 375 publications

References 5 publications

Early animal evolution and the origins of nervous systems

Early animal evolution and the origins of nervous systems

Paleoecology of a large Early Cambrian bioturbator

Behavioral biology of trace fossils

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