There are plenty of examples in nature of females being attracted to the biggest males. This is especially true for a species of fish called the Atlantic Mollie.
The Mollie wants to be as big a fish as possible, because the females show more interest in big fellows than little ones. What’s interesting, though, is what happens with Mollies that live in caves.
Why should they be any different?
Because the caves in question are pitch black. None of the female Mollies can see any of the male Mollies. That could be Arnold Schwarzen-Mollie swimming up next to you, or it could be Mini-Me Mollie; you can’t tell by looking. So which males do you think the female Mollies spent most time around?
I guess they will be random.
That's surprise. When researchers at Hamburg University in Germany studied sexual preference in Mollies that lived in caves, they found the same pattern as in Mollies living outside caves–the females preferred the larger males.
But how did the fish know?
Researchers aren’t sure yet. A good guess, though, is that the cave-dwelling Mollies use organs that sense water displacement. Possibly first involve help them find food. Arnold Schwartzen-Mollie displaces more water than Bill Gates-e-Mollie, so he’ll do better–even on blind dates.
自然界中有很多雌性動(dòng)物被體積最大的雄性動(dòng)物吸引的例子。這真實(shí)體現(xiàn)在一種叫做大西洋摩利的魚(yú)身上。
摩利魚(yú)想變得盡可能龐大,因?yàn)榇菩阅~(yú)對(duì)大的雄性魚(yú)比小的更感興趣。然而,有趣的是穴居的摩利魚(yú)身上所發(fā)生的事。
為什么他們會(huì)與眾不同呢?
因?yàn)樗劶暗亩囱ㄊ瞧岷谝黄](méi)有一只雌性摩利魚(yú)能看見(jiàn)任何雄性摩利魚(yú)。游到你身邊的可能是阿諾德.施瓦岑摩利魚(yú),也可能是迷你小魚(yú),你不可能通過(guò)視覺(jué)辨認(rèn)。所以你認(rèn)為雌性摩利會(huì)花更多時(shí)間在哪只雄性摩利身邊呢?
我猜它們會(huì)隨機(jī)選吧。
真讓人吃驚!當(dāng)?shù)聡?guó)漢堡大學(xué)的研究者們研究穴居的摩利魚(yú)的性偏好時(shí),他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這些摩利魚(yú)和洞外的摩利魚(yú)有相同的取向——雌性摩利偏愛(ài)體積更大的雄性魚(yú)。
但魚(yú)是怎么知道(哪只魚(yú)更大)的呢?
研究者還不確定。但是有一種較好的猜測(cè)認(rèn)為穴居的摩利魚(yú)是使用器官來(lái)感知排出的水。也許還包括幫它們找到食物。阿諾德.施瓦岑摩利能比比爾.蓋茨摩利排出更多的水。所以它們能做的更好,即使是相親。