24 documents found, page 1 of 3
Computer-manipulated stimuli as a research tool in Mozambique tilapia Oreochrom...
Wackermannova, Marie Anna; Horky, Pavel; Amorim, Maria Clara Pessoa; Fonseca, Paulo JorgeMultimodal communication is essential in social interactions in cichlid fish, including conspecifics’ recognition, agonistic interactions and courtship behaviour. Computer-manipulated image stimuli and sound playback offer powerful tools to assess the relative relevance of visual and acoustic stimuli in fish behavioural studies, but these techniques require validation for each taxon. The aim of the present stud...
Reproductive success in the Lusitanian toadfish : Influence of calling activity...
Amorim, Maria Clara Pessoa; Conti, Carlotta; Santos, Carla Sousa; Novais, Bruno; Gouveia, Maria D.; Vicente, Joana R.; Modesto, TeresaAcoustic signals are sexual ornaments with an established role on mate choice in several taxa, but not in fish. Recent studies have suggested that fish vocal activity may signal male quality and influence male's reproductive success but experimental evidence is lacking. Here we made two experiments to test the hypothesis that vocal activity is essential for male breeding success in a highly vocal fish, the Lusi...
Optical micro-tomography “OPenT” allows the study of large toadfish Halobatrach...
Felix, Pedro M.; Gonçalves, Ania; Vicente, Joana R.; Fonseca, Paulo Jorge; Amorim, Maria Clara Pessoa; Costa, José Lino; Martins, Gabriel G.Batrachoidids, which include midshipman and toadfish are less known among embryologists, but are common in other fields. They are characteristic for their acoustic communication, and develop hearing and sound production while young juveniles. They lay large benthic eggs (>5mm) with a thick chorion and adhesive disk and slow development, which are particularly challenging for studying embryology. Here we took ad...
Assessing acoustic communication active space in the Lusitanian toadfish
Alves, Daniel; Amorim, Maria Clara Pessoa; Fonseca, Paulo JorgeThe active space of a signal is an important concept in acoustic communication as it has implications for the function and evolution of acoustic signals. However, it remains mostly unknown for fish as it has been measured in only a restricted number of species. We combined physiological and sound propagation approaches to estimate the communication range of the Lusitanian toadfish’s (Halobatrachus didactylus) a...
Development and characterization of novel microsatellite loci for Lusitanian to...
Santos, Carla Sousa; Fonseca, Paulo Jorge; Amorim, Maria Clara PessoaThe Lusitanian toadfish Halobatrachus didactylus is an eastern Atlantic polygynous species showing male paternal care. In this paper we describe 5 novel microsatellite loci obtained by 454 GS-FLX Titanium pyrosequencing of a microsatellite-enriched library. The number of alleles per polymorphic locus varied between 2 and 4, and the observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.082 to 0.600. No significant deviation fro...
Effects of temperature on sound production in the painted goby Pomatoschistus p...
Vicente, Joana R.; Fonseca, Paulo Jorge; Amorim, Maria Clara PessoaThe painted goby Pomatoschistus pictus emits courtship sounds (drums) that are important in reproductive outcome. The effect of temperature (14–22 °C) on courtship drum features was characterised. Pulse period (or rate) was linearly related with temperature (R2 = 0.83) presenting a Q10 of 2.13. Pulse period decreased by 1.95 ms per 1 °C and varied from 34 ms to 18.6 ms within the studied temperature range. Soun...
Agonistic sounds signal male quality in the Lusitanian toadfish
Amorim, Maria Clara Pessoa; Conti, Carlotta; Modesto, Teresa; Gonçalves, Amparo; Fonseca, Paulo JorgeAcoustic communication during agonistic behaviour is widespread in fishes. Yet, compared to other taxa, little is known on the information content of fish agonistic calls and their effect on territorial defence. Lusitanian toadfish males (Halobatrachus didactylus) are highly territorial during the breeding season and use sounds (boatwhistles, BW) to defend nests from intruders. BW present most energy in either ...
How effective are acoustic signals in territorial defence in the Lusitanian toa...
Conti, Carlotta; Fonseca, Paulo Jorge; Picciulin, Marta; Amorim, Maria Clara PessoaThe function of fish sounds in territorial defence, in particular its influence on the intruder's behaviour during territorial invasions, is poorly known. Breeding Lusitanian toadfish males (Halobatrachus didactylus) use sounds (boatwhistles) to defend nests from intruders. Results from a previous study suggest that boatwhistles function as a 'keep-out signal' during territorial defence. To test this hypothesis...
Call recognition and individual identification of fish vocalizations based on a...
Vieira, Manuel; Fonseca, Paulo Jorge; Amorim, Maria Clara Pessoa; Teixeira, Carlos J. C.The study of acoustic communication in animals often requires not only the recognition of species specific acoustic signals but also the identification of individual subjects, all in a complex acoustic background. Moreover, when very long recordings are to be analyzed, automatic recognition and identification processes are invaluable tools to extract the relevant biological information. A pattern recognition me...
Vocal differentiation parallels development of auditory saccular sensitivity in...
Vasconcelos, Raquel Ornelas; Alderks, Peter W.; Ramos, Andreia; Fonseca, Paulo Jorge; Amorim, Maria Clara Pessoa; Sisneros, Joseph A.Vocal differentiation is widely documented in birds and mammals but has been poorly investigated in other vertebrates, including fish, which represent the oldest extant vertebrate group. Neural circuitry controlling vocal behaviour is thought to have evolved from conserved brain areas that originated in fish, making this taxon key to understanding the evolution and development of the vertebrate vocal-auditory s...