ArticleNature communications2020
Sexual signaling pattern correlates with habitat pattern in visually ornamented fishes.
Article in Nature communications, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Transmission through muscle tissue shapes polarization signals during cuttlefish courtship.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Assessing flexibility in meaning and context in non-human communication.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- A Comparison of Image Statistics of Peacock Jumping Spider Colour Patterns and Natural Scenes.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- When less is more: coy display behaviours and the temporal dynamics of animal courtship.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Darwin, sexual selection, and the brain.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Mechanistic constraint and evolutionary history matter for the origin of innovation in animal communication.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sexual signal design is an evolutionary puzzle that has been partially solved by the hypothesis of sensory drive. Framed in signal detection theory, sensory drive posits that the attractiveness of a signal depends on its detectability, measured as contrast with the background. Yet, cognitive scientists have shown that humans prefer images that match the spatial statistics of natural scenes. The explanation is framed in information theory, whereby attractiveness is determined by the efficiency of information processing. Here, we apply this framework to animals, using Fourier analysis to compare the spatial statistics of body patterning in ten species of darters (Etheostoma spp.) with those of their respective habitats. We find a significant correlation between the spatial statistics of darter patterns and those of their habitats for males, but not for females. Our results support a sensory drive hypothesis that recognizes efficient information processing as a driving force in signal evolution.
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Registered trials
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