Polarized schooling emerges in tetra species with cohesive social networks

Authors:
Open Access
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Fish schooling depends on social interactions between animals. Studies on schooling overwhelmingly focus on a single species, which challenges our ability to resolve what features of this collective behavior are universal and how schooling has diversified over the course of evolution. Here, we studied interspecific variation in schooling behavior among five species of neotropical tetras to examine how social networks relate to schooling kinematics among species. We quantified differences in speed, polarization, spacing, mutual information and network properties within, and between, species. Our results demonstrate substantial interspecific variation in schooling behavior, with polarized species exhibiting higher speeds and more cohesive social networks. In contrast, shoaling species showed greater variability in their spatial arrangement and a less cohesive social structure. This comparison demonstrates how closely related species are capable of exhibiting distinct forms of schooling that reflect divergent traits in sensing, motivation and locomotor control.
Funding Information
  • Office of Naval Research (N00014-22-1-2655)
  • Office of Naval Research (N00014-19-1-2035)
  • National Science Foundation (IOS-2034043)
  • National Science Foundation (IOS-2326484)
  • University of California, Irvine

This publication has 48 references indexed in Scilit: