Collecting Darters (IMAGE)

University of Maryland Baltimore County

Collecting Darters

Caption

Samuel Hulse (right), from UMBC, and Julien Renoult, from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, collect darter fish in a freshwater stream. The complex Fourier analysis they completed based on photos of the fish and their habitats supported and greatly expanded on sensory drive theory, a sexual selection theory that emphasizes the role of the environment in determining which sexual signals are selected for. The new work, published in Nature Communications, shows for the first time that the theory holds true for complex visual patterns, not only simple signals like color.

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Courtesy of Tamra Mendelson

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