Our curiosity could come from fish and be one of the driving forces behind evolution

We are used to thinking that the evolution of life follows a predetermined line, which leads to the organisms most adapted to the environment evolving and developing new strategies to face new and old challenges. However, this is one simplistic view of evolution./b>

Darwin himself made it clear in his essays that evolution does not always follow the most obvious and simple path to enable organisms to adapt to a problem. Moreover, species do not always evolve gradually or in an easily observable way, as all scientists analyze them cryptic species. Groups of animals so similar to themselves that for years they were mistaken as belonging to the same species.

A new report, published on Scientific magazine, However, it further complicated the picture and clarified how one of the main driving forces of evolution – besides interspecies competition, the environment and sexual competition – the innate curiosity of organisms.

As can be read in the press release that was released at the same time as the article, scientists believe that certain animal species have a multiple speciation events – and in step with evolution – thanks to their curiosity and exploratory behavior. In fact, the search for new environments and new resources can lead organisms to find several new types of habitats pushing for change.

To confirm this hypothesis, scientists analyzed one of the most ‘diverse’ groups of organisms ever: cichlid fish that inhabit the rivers and lakes of Central and West Africa.

“The cichlids of Lake Tanganyika in Africa exhibit extraordinary diversity in shape, diet, habitat and color. This allows them to occupy different ecological niches and therefore compete less with each other.” the researchers clarified in their press release.

The professor’s team led this research Walter of Salzburgprofessor of animal biologyUniversity of Basel. For nine months, this team monitored the exploratory behavior of 57 different species of cichlids, which were notable for their tendency to explore.

To track these animals, scientists had to use micro cameras and film hundreds of hours with key actors 700 small fish caught from Lake Tanganyika (each of them was filmed for at least 15 minutes).

Eventually, scientists realized that the species they studied the most had genetic mutations making them more susceptible to swimming further and longer, genes that in turn directly linked them to other species that had these characteristics. This leads to a tendency to explore – at least in Lake Tanganica – it is a hereditary trait of cichlids, since it is in fact a good adaptation to obtain more space, food reserves and the possibility of reproduction.

“Overall, large differences in exploratory behavior were observed between cichlid species, and these differences were also confirmed under laboratory conditions” the researchers clarified. For example, species that live near coasts are more curious than elongated species that live in open water, making it clear that animal behavior – and in this particular case curiosity – is an important factor. driving force behind evolution.

It appears, among other things, that the mutation has been found in the gene cacng5bfundamental to the brain of fish and which leads the most curious cichlids to evolve, is very similar to the basic structure of a variant of the same gene, present in other vertebrates. Scientists are therefore trying to determine whether this type of gene is possible responsible for innate human curiosity and some psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia.

Cichlids are well known within the scientific community. They are among the animals most studied by zoologists and evolutionary biologists and are known as one of the vertebrates with the largest number of species.

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