Social flocculation in plant–animal worms
| Autor: | Worley, Alan, Sendova-Franks, Ana B., Franks, Nigel R. |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Flocculation Floc size 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Symsagittifera roscoffensis 03 medical and health sciences flocculation lcsh:Science Animal movement 030304 developmental biology collective behaviour animal movement flocculation 0303 health sciences Multidisciplinary biology Biology (Whole Organism) collective behaviour Substrate (biology) Applied Statistics Group biology.organism_classification animal movement Multicellular organism Collective behaviour lcsh:Q Biological system Research Article |
| Zdroj: | Royal Society Open Science Worley, A, Sendova-Franks, A B & Franks, N R 2019, ' Social flocculation in plant-animal worms ', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 6, no. 3, 181626 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181626 Royal Society Open Science, Vol 6, Iss 3 (2019) |
| ISSN: | 2054-5703 |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rsos.181626 |
| Popis: | Individual animals can often move more safely or more efficiently as members of a group. This can be as simple as safety in numbers or as sophisticated as aerodynamic or hydrodynamic cooperation. Here, we show that individual plant–animal worms ( Symsagittifera roscoffensis ) can move to safety more quickly through flocculation. Flocs form in response to turbulence that might otherwise carry these beach-dwelling worms out to sea. They allow the worms to descend much more quickly to the safety of the substrate than single worms could swim. Descent speed increases with floc size such that larger flocs can catch up with smaller ones and engulf them to become even larger and faster. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of social flocculation in a wild, multicellular organism. It is also remarkable that such effective flocculation occurs where the components are comparatively large multicellular organisms organized as entangled ensembles. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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