The evolution of the urinary bladder as a storage organ: scent trails and selective pressure of the first land animals in a computational simulation

Abstract

The function of waste control in all living organisms is one of the vital importance. Almost universally, terrestrial tetrapods have a urinary bladder with a storage function. It is well documented that many marine and aerial species do not have an organ of such a function, or have one with very depressed storage functionality. Bladder morphology indicates it has evolved from a thin-walled structure used for osmoregulatory purposes, as it is currently used in many marine animals. It is hypothesised that the storage function of the urinary bladder allows for an evolutionary selective advantage in reducing the likelihood of successful predation. Random walks simulating predator and prey movements with simplified scent trails were utilised to represent various stages of the hunt: Detection and pursuit. A final evolutionary model is proposed in order to display the advantages over inter-generational time scales and illustrates how a bladder may evolve from an osmoregulatory organ to one of the storage. Data sets were generated for each case and analysed indicating the viability of such advantages. From the highly consistent results, three distinct characteristics of having a storage function in the urinary bladder are suggested: reduced scent trail detection rate; increased prey-predator separation (upon scent trail detection); and a reduced probability of successful capture upon scent detection by the predator. Furthered by the evolutionary model indicating such characteristics are conserved and augmented over many generations, it is concluded that prey-predator interactions provide a large selective pressure in the evolution of the urinary bladder and its storage function.

Telocytes of the male urogenital system: Interrelationships, possible functions, and pathological implications

“…In addition, the kidneys also produce erythropoietin, which induces the production of red blood cells in response to hypoxia (Shih et al, 2018). The production of urine, in addition to being sensitive to osmolarity in blood plasma, is also dependent on environmental cues for urination in amniotics, which indicates a possible adaptation to life in terrestrial environments, as a defense against predation, since predators can follow traces of urine in the environment (McCarthy & McCarthy, 2019). The male reproductive system, in turn, evolved in many species in close coordination with seasonality, so that both the production of spermatozoa in the testes (Jiménez et al, 2015) and the production of secretions from the seminal vesicles and the prostate increase in the reproductive period of the year (Chaves et al, 2012; Hamilton et al, 2000; Taggart et al, 2005).…”

The Human Long Noncoding RNA Wilms Tumour 1 Antisense Locus, from an Evolutionary Perspective to Functional Insights

“…In vertebrates, a major body weight/volume component is water; therefore, managing osmolarity is an important factor in evolution. Under this context, it is reasonable to explain it in the mirror of the widest evolutionary genomic scope, where ultra-conservation must derive from the functional contribution of these elements to tness [8], particularly where they are under a quite strong selection pressure [9] such as liquid homeostasis.…”

Dynamic walking behavior during odor trail-following in locusts

“…However, despite their ecological prevalence, few studies have examined animal behavior around odor trails compared to airborne plume tracking during flight. Among the important work that has been done on the subject are studies on the extraordinary capabilities of large animals such as dogs, wolves, rattlesnakes, and other predators to track the odor trails left by prey over long distances 1,[8][9][10][11][12] . Smaller animals, in particular mammals such as rats and mice 13 , and invertebrates such as ants [5][6][7]14 have also been successfully used to examine trail-following behavior.…”