Characterizing behavioural ‘characters’: an evolutionary framework

Biologists often study phenotypic evolution assuming that phenotypes consist of a set of quasi-independent units that have been shaped by selection to accomplish a particular function. In the evolutionary literature, such quasi-independent functional units are called ‘evolutionary characters’, and a framework based on evolutionary principles has been developed to characterize them. This framework mainly focuses on ‘fixed’ characters, i.e. those that vary exclusively between individuals. In this paper, we introduce multi-level variation and thereby expand the framework to labile characters, focusing on behaviour as a worked example. We first propose a concept of ‘behavioural characters’ based on the original evolutionary character concept. We then detail how integration of variation between individuals (cf. ‘personality’) and within individuals (cf. ‘individual plasticity’) into the framework gives rise to a whole suite of novel testable predictions about the evolutionary character conce...

生物学家在开展表型进化（phenotypic evolution）研究时，通常假定表型由一系列准独立单元（quasi-independent units）构成，这些单元经自然选择塑造以实现特定功能。在进化生物学研究文献中，这类准独立功能单元被称为进化性状（evolutionary characters），学界已发展出一套基于进化原理的分析框架以对其进行表征。该框架主要聚焦于固定性状（fixed characters），即仅在个体间存在变异的性状。本文引入多水平变异的概念，借此将该框架拓展至易变性状（labile characters），并以行为作为示例展开详细阐述。我们首先基于原始进化性状概念，提出行为性状（behavioural characters）的定义。随后我们详细说明了，将个体间变异（参见"动物个性"（personality））与个体内变异（参见"个体可塑性"（individual plasticity））整合至该框架后，会衍生出一系列针对进化性状概念的全新可检验预测……