Social conquest of land: Sea-to-land changes in shell architecture and body morphology, with consequences for social evolution

Laidre, Mark E.

doi:10.1016/j.asd.2021.101064

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Indeed, for a small bodied individual to carry the weight of too large a shell, is energetically costly and inhibits its growth (Osorno et al, 2005). Furthermore, a small bodied individual is incapable of completely filling and therefore holding onto too large a shell, making it easily evictable and powerless to defend that shell (Laidre, 2021c). Hence, individuals prefer shells of the appropriate, next size up relative to their current body size.…”

Section: Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Social hermit crabs architecturally remodel the interiors of shells, which is beneficial in terms of lightening the load they must carry on land (Herreid and Full, 1986;Trinh and Laidre, 2016). However, this architectural remodeling has a hidden cost: by eroding out much of the shell's interior, it means there is less for owners to grip upon when resisting eviction (Laidre, 2021c). Thus, in linking architecture to coalitions, one interesting hypothesis is that altering the available grip inside shells could impact the ability of owners to resist eviction, regardless of their baseline strength; and if owners are then more versus less hard to evict, it should in turn change whether coalitions are still necessary or effective.…”

Section: Experimental Tests Of Architecture: From Shell Interior Up To Whole Housing Marketsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Architecture of Cooperation Among Non-kin: Coalitions to Move Up in Nature’s Housing Market

Laidre

2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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The evolution of cooperation among non-kin poses a major theoretical puzzle: why should natural selection favor individuals who help unrelated conspecifics at a cost to themselves? The relevance of architecture to this question has rarely been considered. Here I report cooperation among non-kin in social hermit crabs (Coenobita compressus), where unrelated conspecifics work together to evict larger individuals from a housing market of architecturally remodeled shells. I present (1) the first detailed description of natural coalitions in the wild and (2) a theoretical framework, which examines the evolutionary benefits to each coalition member and predicts when forming a coalition will be successful. In the wild, important ecological and social constraints exist, which are built into the model. Based on these constraints, I show that coalitions can be a successful strategy if several key criteria hold: the coalition is necessary, effective, stable dyadically, and stable polyadically. Notably, the “splitting the spoils” problem—which often undermines non-kin cooperation—is eliminated via architecture: a small individual (C) who helps a medium individual (B) to evict a large individual (A) will ultimately benefit, since C will get B’s left behind shell after B moves into A’s shell. Coalitions, however, can break down due to added layers of social complexity involving third-party “free riders” and “cheaters,” which strategically butt in the architectural queue and thereby steal incentives from the smaller coalition member. Overall, therefore, substantial scope exists for both cooperation and conflict within nature’s housing market of architecture. Experiments are now needed to directly test the impact on coalitions of architecture, from the interior of homes up to whole housing markets.

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Section: Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experimental Tests Of Architecture: From Shell Interior Up To Whole Housing Marketsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Architecture of Cooperation Among Non-kin: Coalitions to Move Up in Nature’s Housing Market

Laidre

2021

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Individual crabs are highly mobile 22 , carrying their shell with them as a transportable, protective home as they locomote 23 . And because only a small portion of an owner’s body protrudes from its shell 24 , the shell is typically all that can be seen as individuals traverse the beach landscape. Prior work has therefore successfully used shells as stand-ins for conspecifics 25 , both in localised groups 26 , which were collectively jostled with variable levels of commotion, and in stationary shell arrays 27 , involving various fine-grained social structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Individualism versus collective movement during travel

Doherty

Laidre

2022

Sci Rep

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Collective movement may emerge if coordinating one’s movement with others produces a greater benefit to oneself than can be achieved alone. Experimentally, the capacity to manoeuvre simulated groups in the wild could enable powerful tests of the impact of collective movement on individual decisions. Yet such experiments are currently lacking due to the inherent difficulty of controlling whole collectives. Here we used a novel technique of experimentally simulating the movement of collectives of social hermit crabs (Coenobita compressus) in the wild. Using large architectural arrays of shells dragged across the beach, we generated synchronous collective movement and systematically varied the simulated collective’s travel direction as well as the context (i.e., danger level). With drone video from above, we then tested whether focal individuals were biased in their movement by the collective. We found that, despite considerable engagement with the collective, individuals’ direction was not significantly biased. Instead, individuals expressed substantial variability across all stimulus directions and contexts. Notably, individuals typically achieved shorter displacements in the presence of the collective versus in the presence of the control stimulus, suggesting an impact of traffic. The absence of a directional bias in individual movement due to the collective suggests that social hermit crabs are individualists, which move with a high level of opportunistic independence, likely thanks to the personal architecture and armour they carry in the form of a protective shell. Future studies can manipulate this level of armour to test its role in autonomy of movement, including the consequences of shell architecture for social decisions. Our novel experimental approach can be used to ask many further questions about how and why collective and individual movement interact.

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“…Fishes with about 36,305 species (Fricke et al, 2020) are the most rich‐species group of vertebrates in the world with a high diversity in morphology, biology, ecology, genetics, and behavior. Nature is influential in most of the strategies ending in the creativity of a specific character, which appeared as a strong tool for species recognition to be used as an identity card (Al Jufaili et al, 2022; Laidre, 2021). These fundamentally different strategies emerged in the course of evolution (Al Jufaili et al, 2022; Laidre, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nature is influential in most of the strategies ending in the creativity of a specific character, which appeared as a strong tool for species recognition to be used as an identity card (Al Jufaili et al, 2022; Laidre, 2021). These fundamentally different strategies emerged in the course of evolution (Al Jufaili et al, 2022; Laidre, 2021). To study systematics and phylogeny of this diverse taxon, numerous morphological and molecular characteristics are used (e.g., Echreshavi et al, 2021; Esmaeili, Sayyadzadeh, et al, 2020; Esmaeili, Teimori, et al, 2020; Teimori & Esmaeili, 2022; Zarei et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scales surface topography: Comparative ultrastructural and decorative characteristics of a modern elasmoid fish scales in a cyprinid fish, Garra shamal (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) using digital optical light and scanning electron microscope imaging

Jufaili

Echreshavi

Esmaeili

2022

Microscopy Res & Technique

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The complex architecture of fish scale has been investigated for several decades to show an existing link between scale morphology/microstructure and systematic/ evolutionary relationships of fishes. In the present study, the surface architecture structure associated with the scales of a hill stream cyprinid fish Garra shamal restricted to the Hajar Mountains of the Arabian Peninsula was examined by optical light and scanning electron microscopy; (i) to describe the whole morphology, architectural design and hidden microstructures of scales in an endemic fish of the Arabian Peninsula, G. shamal, (ii) to investigate the phenotypic plasticity of scales in six selected regions of the fish body, (iii) to show an ontogenetic pattern of scale morphology in different size classes, and (iv) to study morphometric parameters for scales, and determine the most valuable indices for differentiating the scales of different body regions and the different size groups of studied species. For this purpose, scales were removed from six body regions of three size classes. The scale of G. shamal, as an ossified platelet and hard structure covering the outer part of fish in different body parts and size groups, demonstrated numerous hidden morphological and structural characteristics, and sculptural design, for example, type, shape, and size in general term, and circuli (thickness, arrangement, and relative spacing of circuli around the focus), radii (number, shape, its origin from focus), lepidonts (the texture, shape, size, orientation, and type of its attachment), and granules (shape, size, number, and configurations) in a specific term, that can contribute efficiently in fish identification and classification at the genus and species levels. Position of focus, presence of radii in all four fields of scales (anterior, posterior, and laterals) and thus tetra-sectioned type, presence of specific tubercle arrangement on the posterior region, and some scale indices can be used as a taxonomic tool in Garra identification.Moreover, scales in G. shamal demonstrated plasticity in different fish size classes, and the origin of scales on the fish body, revealing a kind of ontogenetic variation, and the importance of key scales (scales below the dorsal fin) in the lepidological studies. The quantitative and qualitative traits described here based on the optical light microscopy and electron scanning microscopy can be implemented along with

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Social conquest of land: Sea-to-land changes in shell architecture and body morphology, with consequences for social evolution

Cited by 7 publications

References 45 publications

The Architecture of Cooperation Among Non-kin: Coalitions to Move Up in Nature’s Housing Market

The Architecture of Cooperation Among Non-kin: Coalitions to Move Up in Nature’s Housing Market

Individualism versus collective movement during travel

Scales surface topography: Comparative ultrastructural and decorative characteristics of a modern elasmoid fish scales in a cyprinid fish, Garra shamal (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) using digital optical light and scanning electron microscope imaging

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