falseredstart:

Displays of motor skill in the animal kingdom

A leading idea in animal display evolution is that some bizarre display behaviors evolved to encode information about motor skill, or the ability to successfully and precisely perform a challenging motor behavior.

Here, we have the fiddler crab (Uca perplexa) waving its large claw; the Bornean rock frog (Staurois parvus) performing a foot-flag signal; and a pair of western grebes (Aechmophoris occidentalis) in the midst of a courtship display run. These illustrations were prepared for colleagues to include in a manuscript they are preparing.