The red tooth hypothesis: A computational model of predator-prey relations, protean escape behavior and sexual reproduction

Robert M. French (1)

1 LEAD - Laboratoire d'Etude de l'Apprentissage et du Développement [Dijon]

This paper presents an extension of the Red Queen Hypothesis (hereafter, RQH) that we call the Red Tooth Hypothesis (RTH). This hypothesis suggests that predator-prey relations may play a role in the maintenance of sexual reproduction in many higher animals. RTH is based on an interaction between learning on the part of predators and evolution on the part of prey. We present a simple predator-prey computer simulation that illustrates the effects of this interaction. This simulation suggests that the optimal escape strategy from the prey's standpoint would be to have a small number of highly reflexive, largely innate (and, therefore, very fast) escape patterns, but that would also be unlearnable by the predator. One way to achieve this would be for each individual in the prey population to have a small set of hard-wired escape patterns, but which were different for each individual.

Mots clés: Red Queen Hypothesis; Red Tooth Hypothesis; Predation; Flight behavior; Sex; Polymorphic escape sequences; Predator-prey; Protean escape behaviour

Robert M. French. The red tooth hypothesis: A computational model of predator-prey relations, protean escape behavior and sexual reproduction. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 2009, 262 (1), pp.165. ⟨10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.09.016⟩. ⟨hal-00559158⟩