Integrative Research Center, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
PLoS Biol. 2018 Dec 17;16(12):e3000093. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000093. eCollection 2018 Dec.
Animal signals-involving combinations of acoustic, chemical, visual, and behavioral cues-are among the most diverse traits in nature. Testing hypotheses about signal evolution has been hampered by difficulties with comparing highly divergent signals among species. In this Primer, I describe recent advances in capturing signals and studying their evolution. I highlight new findings using an information theory-based approach to quantifying signal variation in the diverse birds-of-paradise. Growing access to signal databases in tandem with development of new analytical tools will open up new avenues for studying the proximate mechanisms and ultimate evolutionary causes of signal variation, both within and among species.
动物信号——包括声音、化学、视觉和行为线索的组合——是自然界中最多样化的特征之一。由于难以比较物种之间高度不同的信号，因此测试有关信号进化的假设受到了阻碍。在这篇简介中，我描述了捕获信号并研究其进化的最新进展。我强调了使用基于信息理论的方法来量化各种天堂鸟中信号变化的新发现。随着信号数据库的不断增加以及新分析工具的不断发展，将为研究信号变化的近因机制和终极进化原因开辟新的途径，包括物种内部和物种之间的信号变化。
