fringe populations as a generic bio-system parameter

From: Gil Lawton (gillawton_at_earthlink.net)
Date: 03/05/05 

Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2005 22:33:24 -0500 (EST)

>In the case of Bill's cichlids, some fish live in one environment and
>are becoming adapted to it, but some other fish of the same species
>live in a different environment and are becoming (differently) adapted
>to that environment. It would be good for the fish in both environments if
>there was a speciation so that both populations could become more
>perfectly adapted. But since the two environments and the two
>populations are so close geographically, there is some interbreeding,
>and genes "flow" back and forth between the two populations. Hence
>there will be fish in both populations (both environments) carrying
>genes adapting them for the wrong environment.

(Gil's response)

I am reminded by your mention of cichlids of a Jacques Cousteau
presentation I enjoyed, many years ago, in which the narrator
remarked that in almost every kind of biological population there
is a fringe population of individuals whose form and/or behavior
is anomalous for the group.

The focus of the presentation was not upon the population as a
whole, except for purposes of comparison. The black sheep, if you
will, amount to about one in roughly one hundred individuals
among a population of tiny fishes that stay close to the protective
covers of plants and rocks and even some benign (to them) other
large species on the ocean floor in the area that was being studied.
The anomalous ones were aggressive toward predators -- even
predators that dwarfed them in size and speed. While the main
population hides and darts in and out among anything that will
shelter it, these little guys went exploring about, outside the
crowd and,foraging nearby, but not with the crowd. And, when
a predator came near they would go right for its face -- despite the
fact they had no weapon to fight with. And, although this sometimes
would startle the predator they -- more often than not -- just got
gobbled, and that (as one of Hemingway's characters put it) was the
end of the beginning of that.

So often, casual thinkers about evolution, tend to look for an
advantage in such behavior, to justify it. I tend, however, to look for
behaviors -- especially seemingly hard wired and thus perhaps
mutationally driven behaviors -- as being more likely to be
futile, somewhat less but likely to be benign, and, only rarely,
to turn out to be fortuitous.

In that particular Cousteau-observed scenario, I did not perceive the
behavior to be "sacrificial" nor "altruistic," but merely what might
be potential. Although that behavior MIGHT have benefited the
rest of the population in some way, I saw no evidence of it, in
watching what went on. More often than not the assertive little
rascals served only as the first gulp of what, for the predator, was
about to be a meal of conformists of the specie..

I do not pretend to have analyzed conclusively, but it seems to me
intuitive that whatever accounted for the erratic behavior was no
more useful than in a case of schizophrenia in a human. It certainly
did not appear to increase the survivability of the individual, nor did
it appear to me to benefit the community in any way whatsoever. And
for the predator, so far as I could observe, it did not matter whether its
meal was LIFO or FIFO, as long as there was food to be taken.

What my continued thoughts wandered to, from observing that
aggressive/assertive lunatic fringe population was to wonder if,
perhaps, such behavior is not paralleled in other bio-organism
communities. For example, I do recall reading somewhere, in relation
to some kind of herding equid or bovid that there are males who
are leaders, who stay apart from the herd and are not gregarious.
These same males, if I remember correctly, were referred to by
whoever did the study as "leaders," because they tended to steer
the herd away from some places where predators could conceal
themselves, and did take on any predators that approached the
herd. (I get angry at my brain for not hanging on to sources and
details of such things... but I do read so prodigiously... to recall all of
it might be worse than forgetting some of it.)

But the main pattern that seems to jump out at me is that there
could be (and I think probably are) for all bio-populations only a limited
number of possible permutations of behavior. Stick with the crowd,
separate from the crowd, stay nearby, gravitate to a different herd,
fight, run away, breed anytime,, avoid breeding except during estrus...

The list could be voluminous, but would have limits. And while some
groups do things like burrow in the Earth, horses and eagles have
other clusters of behavior parameters. But there is no reason there
could not be a classification of generic behavioral choices some day,
it seems to me, what with super computers becoming able these days
to contain such things as genomes and protein folding options...
so why not all behavioral options, as an aggregate of those found in
all species (and their anomalously behaving fringe populations),
such that any given behavioral complex could be viewed as expressing
a certain constellation of these, and another another -- while even at
very remotely distinguishable levels, behavior such as non-gregarious
behavior and group leading or group protecting behavior might be seen
as proximate patterns that COULD appear -- as a result of a single
mutational variation -- that is actually the same behavior parameter,
and just in a different specie, in a different place, at a different time..

Non-conformation with "rules" need not be the same as "stand-offishness,"
nor be paired with bravado toward interlopers or breeding competitors.
Consequently, as distinct parameters, courage need not be paired with
herd-protective behavior.

Actually, I am not motivated to go deeply into behavior patterns qua
behavior patterns. What I find more intriguiging are the parameters
of BIO-SYSTEMS generically: gas exchange (respiration); mechanisms
of metabolism; mechanisms of heat absorption (as opposed to internal
heat production), production of electricity (as by some species of fish
for locating food or shocking predators.

Many of these mechanisms seem to be closely enough related (such
as the evolvement of the use of use of electrical patters in potential prey,
by sharks, and the ability to shock prey and predators.

Bio-system conglomerates and bio-system parameters...

Maybe these already have been studied. If so, I would love to know of
publications focusing on them -- across all plants and animals -- and
not as mere aspects of describing and studying specific applications
in one, or a few, species or families.

g

production

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