A synthesis of the evolutionary feedback between physiology and behavior: how physiological systems generate new behaviors, and how behaviors shape physiological evolution. Few traits in biology are as spectacular as behavior. Consider birds that perform elaborate dance numbers on the forest floor to attract mates or lizards that trap air bubbles on their heads to dive underwater and evade predators.
Throughout much of the late twentieth century, comparative physiologists proposed a series of influential ideas about how the internal workings of organisms--metabolism, neuromechanics, hormones, biomechanics, and other physiological systems--shape the evolution of behavior. At the same time, many evolutionary biologists argued that behavior serves as a crucial filter through which organisms experience natural selection, in turn shaping the evolution of physiological systems. Despite their conceptual power, many of these ideas proved difficult to test at the time.
Today, that landscape has changed dramatically. Advances in genomics, physiology, neuroethology, and phylogenetics have caught up with foundational concepts, allowing scientists to revisit and restructure classic ideas with unprecedented precision.
This edited collection,
Evolutionary Physiology and Behavior, by Martha Muñoz and Matthew Fuxjager brings together contributions from a new generation of scientists, all of whom are leveraging this methodological revolution to tackle classic concepts with new vigor, integrate and synthesize among disciplines, and envision new connections and fresh ideas. The result is a synthesis that both reexamines classic ideas and points to new directions for understanding how organisms evolve.
生理與行為之間演化回饋的綜合論述：生理系統如何產生新的行為，以及行為如何形塑生理系統的演化。
在生物學中，很少有特徵能像行為一樣令人驚嘆。想想看，有些鳥類會在森林地面上表演繁複的舞蹈來吸引配偶；有些蜥蜴則會在頭部捕捉氣泡，藉此潛入水下躲避掠食者。
在二十世紀後半葉的大部分時間裡，比較生理學家提出了一系列深具影響力的觀點，探討生物體的內部運作——包括代謝、神經力學、激素、生物力學及其他生理系統——如何形塑行為的演化。與此同時，許多演化生物學家主張，行為是生物體經歷自然選擇時的一道關鍵篩選機制，進而形塑生理系統的演化。儘管這些觀點在概念上極具力量，但其中許多想法在當時都難以驗證。
如今，情況已經大幅改變。基因體學、生理學、神經行為學與系統發育學的進展，已經追上早期建立的理論概念，使科學家能以前所未有的精確度重新檢視並重構經典觀點。
由 Martha Muñoz 與 Matthew Fuxjager 編輯的論文集《演化生理學與行為》（Evolutionary Physiology and Behavior），彙集了新一代科學家的研究成果。這些科學家善用這場方法論革命，以全新的活力重新探討經典概念，整合並綜合不同學科的觀點，同時構想嶄新的連結與創見。其成果是一套兼具綜合性的論述：一方面重新審視經典觀點，另一方面也為理解生物體如何演化指出新的方向。
Martha Muñoz is Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University and Associate Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum. Her research explores how organisms shape selection and evolution through their behavior and is funded by the National Science Foundation. She is a 2024 MacArthur Fellow.
Matthew Fuxjager is Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology at Brown University. His research focuses on the evolution of animal behavior, with an emphasis on the role that physiology plays in determining how new behavioral traits emerge and diversify across the tree of life. His research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Martha Muñoz 是 Yale University 生態學與演化生物學副教授，也是 Yale Peabody Museum 脊椎動物學副館長。她的研究探討生物如何透過自身行為形塑選汰與演化，研究經費由 National Science Foundation 提供。她是 2024 年 MacArthur Fellow。
Matthew Fuxjager 是 Brown University 生態學、演化與生物體生物學教授。他的研究聚焦於動物行為的演化，尤其著重於生理學在決定新行為特徵如何出現，以及如何在生命之樹中分化方面所扮演的角色。他的研究經費由 National Science Foundation 提供。
