Publication Date:
1999-04-02
Description:
One of the most striking patterns in biology is the formation of animal aggregations. Classically, aggregation has been viewed as an evolutionarily advantageous state, in which members derive the benefits of protection, mate choice, and centralized information, balanced by the costs of limiting resources. Consisting of individual members, aggregations nevertheless function as an integrated whole, displaying a complex set of behaviors not possible at the level of the individual organism. Complexity theory indicates that large populations of units can self-organize into aggregations that generate pattern, store information, and engage in collective decision-making. This begs the question, are all emergent properties of animal aggregations functional or are some simply pattern? Solutions to this dilemma will necessitate a closer marriage of theoretical and modeling studies linked to empirical work addressing the choices, and trajectories, of individuals constrained by membership in the group.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Parrish, J K -- Edelstein-Keshet, L -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1999 Apr 2;284(5411):99-101.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Zoology Department, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. jparrish@u.washington.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10102827" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Behavior, Animal
;
*Biological Evolution
;
*Cooperative Behavior
;
Mathematics
;
Models, Biological
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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