A framework for studying behavioral evolution by reconstructing ancestral repertoires

Understand

Although extensive behavioral changes often exist between closely related animal species, our understanding of the genetic basis underlying the evolution of behavior has remained limited.

• Here, we propose a new framework to study behavioral evolution by computational estimation of ancestral behavioral repertoires.
• We measured the behaviors of individuals from six species of fruit flies using unsupervised techniques and identified suites of stereotyped movements exhibited by each species.
• We then fit a Generalized Linear Mixed Model to estimate the suites of behaviors exhibited by ancestral species, as well as the intra- and inter-species behavioral covariances.