Out of the blue: the evolution of horizontally polarized signals in Haptosquilla (Crustacea, Stomatopoda, Protosquillidae)
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Date
2014-07-09
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Citation of Original Publication
Martin J. How, Megan L. Porter, et.al, Out of the blue: the evolution of horizontally polarized signals in Haptosquilla (Crustacea, Stomatopoda, Protosquillidae), The Journal of Experimental Biology (2014) 217, 3425-3431, doi:10.1242/jeb.107581
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Abstract
The polarization of light provides information that is used by many
animals for a number of different visually guided behaviours. Several
marine species, such as stomatopod crustaceans and cephalopod
molluscs, communicate using visual signals that contain polarized
information, content that is often part of a more complex multidimensional
visual signal. In this work, we investigate the evolution
of polarized signals in species of Haptosquilla, a widespread genus
of stomatopod, as well as related protosquillids. We present evidence
for a pre-existing bias towards horizontally polarized signal content
and demonstrate that the properties of the polarization vision system
in these animals increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the signal.
Combining these results with the increase in efficacy that polarization
provides over intensity and hue in a shallow marine environment, we
propose a joint framework for the evolution of the polarized form of
these complex signals based on both efficacy-driven (proximate) and
content-driven (ultimate) selection pressures.