What gesture do dogs and crayfish have in common?
If you are one of those people who look away when male dogs get on each other's backs, stay away from an aquarium with crayfish. Just as dogs establish dominance relationships through fake sexual contact, low-ranking males submit to simulated sexual contact with an alpha male as a statement of submission, instead of fighting and hurting…
The study that examined this was published in November 2006 in the journal Current Biology and is the first to show this type of behavior in invertebrates, a finding that suggests that mammals, as well as invertebrates, have independently developed strategies for determining rank and social dominance.
