Dominance in Crayfish

Abstract

I am an 8th-grade student at Westland Middle School in Bethesda, Maryland. I read with interest the article “Neurobiology: Social status sculpts activity of crayfish neurons” by Marcia Barinaga (Research News, [19 Jan., p. 290][1]), which discussed the report “The effect of social experience on serotonergic modulation of the escape circuit of crayfish” by Shih-Rung Yeh et al . in the same issue ([p. 366][2]). A statement in Barinaga's article says that male crayfish display dominance behavior toward other males. My 1995 school science fair project was on the subject of fighting and dominance behavior in crayfish. I paired crayfish, videotaped their encounters, and noted the resulting dominance behavior. I carefully noted the sex of the crayfish. I discovered that not only males fight males, but females fight males and females fight other females. In general, one cannot predict which animal will finally be dominant. That is, females or males can show dominance in a mixed fight. I also observed that relative size or the absence of a claw were not predictors of dominance. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.271.5247.290 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.271.5247.366