FOSSILS ET AL.
Perfume vs. Sound vs. Color
Another Brief Look at the Matter of Messaging in Nature
Perfume … is set in motion by the fathead minnow in order to dispatch distress signals when injured, the aquatic Achlya fungus in order to recognize a potential mate, the common grasshopper in order to defend against predators, and flowers of plants in order to lure and seduce specific animals for pollen transfer. Constraints of morphological heritage prevent these creatures from broadcasting the equivalent messages in color or sound?
“An academic inquiry.”
Butterflies live in the same environments as birds but are rather tiny to communicate by song. And microorganisms and sponges and fungi simply aren’t equipped with the needed organs to make much music. But howler monkeys have what it takes, and they send low-pitched roars to rival groups hundreds of meters away. And male prairie chickens produce booming sounds that extend farther than that. Still, to relate some intelligence or instruction or warning, whereas audible messaging is dense fast and flexible, it is much less prevalent in Nature than most realize.
“There’s a Bengali wedding ritual which provides that the groom inhale to savor wicks made from material soaked in the bride’s urine. It’s a tradition of trading in the sort of information that’s not so easily conveyed by color or sound,” Tulíp is fascinated by this.
Visual signals are advantageously pinpointed in space with ease, yet such clues are limited with respect to the distance of their reach. And moreover, they are of little use in the dark, or when there are obstructions to the perceiver’s line of sight.
“And also, in the matter of colorful indications, organisms receiving need to be perceiving, in other words, paying attention.”
In any event, while they are more widespread than transmissions of sound, few messaging systems in the Natural World are wholly reliant on images of light flashes or color patterns or body movements or eyespots and such. And of course, they are nothing compared to … perfume.
“There’s a Ugandan wedding ritual which provides that the bride sit on the groom’s hands, on a stool that had been urinated upon by him and his brothers. It’s a custom of trading in the sort of information that’s not so easily conveyed by color or sound,” Tulíp has a special interest in such folklore.
And we have cases of surface wave communication, as in patterns of timed ripples made by water striders to initiate courtship, or thrumming by mother cobweb spiders to call their young. And we have cases of electrical communication, as in currents emitted and low-frequency voltage gradients perceived by aquatic creatures like sharks and catfish and eels, frequently serving their efforts to seek prey.
“Male gorillas and baboons inspect females’ vaginas and then sniff their fingers. It’s an exercise of trading in the sort of information that’s not so easily conveyed by surface waves or electric currents,” Tulíp is notably intrigued by depictions of primate sexuality.
So, it’s the substance of this survey, that during the history of Life, over evolutionary time, some species have developed sensory channels that augment what always has been, and still is — all things considered … all communication considered … and reconsidered — the primary currency of information employed by living beings — perfume.
“In the case of perfume, organisms perceiving just need to have being, in other words, they don’t need to believe in as long as they breathe in, in other words, they don’t need to be seeing or hearing as long as they’re breathing.”
Published in Fossils et al. Follow to learn more about Paleontology and Evolution.
