scholarly journals Using Enclosed Y-Mazes to Assess Chemosensory Behavior in Reptiles

Author(s):  
M. Rockwell Parker ◽  
Andrea F. Currylow ◽  
Eric A. Tillman ◽  
Charlotte J. Robinson ◽  
Jillian M. Josimovich ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Vaughan ◽  
Danielle L. Dixson

AbstractCoral reef organisms are exposed to both an increasing magnitude of pCO2, and natural fluctuations on a diel scale. For coral reef fishes, one of the most profound effects of ocean acidification is the impact on ecologically important behaviors. Previous behavioral research has primarily been conducted under static pCO2 conditions and have recently come under criticism. Recent studies have provided evidence that the negative impacts on behavior may be reduced under more environmentally realistic, fluctuating conditions. We investigated the impact of both present and future day, static (500 and 1000 μatm) and diel fluctuating (500 ± 200 and 1000 ± 200 μatm) pCO2 on the lateralization and chemosensory behavior of juvenile anemonefish, Amphiprion percula. Our static experimental comparisons support previous findings that under elevated pCO2, fish become un-lateralized and lose the ability to discriminate olfactory cues. Diel-fluctuating pCO2 may aid in mitigating the severity of some behavioral abnormalities such as the chemosensory response, where a preference for predator cues was significantly reduced under a future diel-fluctuating pCO2 regime. This research aids in ground truthing earlier findings and contributes to our growing knowledge of the role of fluctuating conditions.


2000 ◽  
Vol 198 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
MJ Weissburg

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Cooper

Abstract Adaptations to foraging requirements have molded sensory capacities of animals in intriguing and sometimes spectacular ways, including evolution of echolocation by bats and infrared detection by pitvipers, as well as of location of prey using lingually sampled chemical cues by actively foraging lizards. Among snakes, specialized diets and geographic differences in diets have evolved many times. Because snakes identify prey by vomerolfactory analysis of chemicals sampled by tongue-flicking, it may be predicted that responsiveness to lingually sampled chemical cues corresponds to diet: It should be much stronger to prey included in than excluded from specialized diets and should covary with geographic dietary differences in prey generalists. Breeding studies in Thamnophis elegans showed that greater responsiveness to local prey in populations having geographically variable diets has a heritable component. Whether strong chemosensory response evolves to match current diet has not been established for snakes using the comparative method. For all paired comparisons of dietary change now available, chemosensory behavior changed so that strongest responses were limited to cues from the current prey. Because diets were specialized and snakes were ingestively naive hatchlings in almost all comparisons, the basis for observed relationships is innate rather than experiential. Snake chemosensory responses have evolved to match current diets.


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