The pathway to Mimicry in Animals

Mimicry as a mode of deception is a weapon that many animals have evolved to make use of. Whether an organism has evolved mimicry as a form of camouflage or to be a specialist in hunting or attracting particular prey it is a trait seen a large portion of the animal kingdom. If evolution was a simple process and evolutionary pathways could be drawn linearly It would be interesting to note how some animals arrived in their current state due to their own selection pressures. It is this concept of evolutionary pathways to mimicry, the overlaps in evolutionary pathways and the various different types of mimicry that this blog will be focusing on.

  

Mimic Octopus Pretending to be a Stone fish

 As somewhat of an introduction point defining evolution as a response to environmental and population factors, selection pressures, random mutation helps to specify our perspectives a great deal in terms of studying the variety in animal life we currently see. In Nelson's (2013) work Evolutionary implications of deception in mimicry and masquerade" he defines two forms or mimicry, Batesian mimicry and Agressive mimicry. Batesian mimicry is the form in which an organism has resemblance to another organism for protection from; where as Aggressive mimicry has been classified as resemblance to another organism in order to obtain food whether this be the use of a bait or signals that their prey can pick up on. Nelson covers but a fraction of  the various forms of mimicry and the pathways that lead to them in his paper and it is the aim of this blog to piece together more information on Mimicry in the animal kingdom.

References:

Nelson, X. J. 2013. Evolutionary implications of deception in mimicry and masquerade. Current Zoology.