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Evolutionary Aspects of the Human Aesthetic Responses to Flowers
Hůla, Martin ; Flegr, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Frynta, Daniel (referee) ; Sádlo, Jiří (referee)
Human aesthetic responses to plants and flowers have long been an unexplored topic in people-plant interactions research. Theories focusing on aesthetic responses to plants and studies testing the effects of plants on human well-being have usually used general terms such as vegetation, greenery, or houseplants, thus ignoring the immense diversity of individual plant shapes and colors. We argue that specific features of different plant species play a key role in eliciting human aesthetic responses and possibly also influence the strength of their effects on human well-being. We decided to identify some flower features that might influence the aesthetic response and to test their relevance empirically. The choice of flower features was derived from evolutionary theoretical frameworks that discuss the origin of human aesthetic responses to flowers (Habitat selection theory), shapes (Information processing theory), and colors (Ecological valence theory). In the first study, we asked more than 2,000 participants to rate the beauty of 52 Czech wildflowers in photographs. Our results showed a strong agreement between raters. The prototypicality of flowers had a positive effect on the rating of their beauty. At the same time, the ratings were strongly negatively correlated with flower complexity. Floral...
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Response to dangerous animals in Europe and Africa - attention and emotions
Štolhoferová, Iveta ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Telenský, Petr (referee) ; Burda, Hynek (referee)
The focus of this thesis on the emotions elicited by certain animals and the attentional bias towards these animals in two completely different human populations - the Czech Republic and the Republic of Somaliland. Animals have long been at the center of human interest, yet our knowledge of what emotions animals evoke is surprisingly incomplete, especially outside of the so-called WEIRD societies. We found that snakes, scorpions, and large carnivores elicited the greatest fear in Somalis. Among Czechs, however, spiders were also among the most feared animals. Both populations were the least afraid of beetles and grasshoppers. Spontaneous attentional bias during free viewing of two simultaneously presented images reflected both this cross-cultural difference and agreement. When a scorpion and a spider were presented together, the Somalis looked significantly more at the scorpion, but the Czechs distributed their attention more evenly between the two animals, although a slight bias in favor of the scorpion was apparent. In contrast, when the grasshopper was presented with a spider or a scorpion, both Czechs and Somalis looked much less at the grasshopper. In the case of snakes, a stimulus highly feared by both Somalis and Czechs, we focused on the effect of the threatening posture on the spontaneous...
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Body surfaces of reptiles as projection screens of evolution
Abramjan, Andran ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Rehák, Ivan (referee) ; Šulc, Michal (referee)
The PhD thesis deals mainly with the coloration (and also scalation) of selected reptile species and explores evolutionary or ecological contexts indicated by these traits. The main topics can be roughly divided into two groups: 'antipredation signals' and 'effects of parthenogenesis'. The dominant method used in most studies is visual modelling. The work consists of the following case studies. 1) Blue-tongue skinks use their conspicuous blue tongues to threaten potential predators. We found that the tongue has a relatively high UV reflectance, a typical feature of intraspecific communication in lizards. Using visual models, we investigated how the blue tongue is perceived by the conspecifics and predators (birds of prey). In both visual models, the UV-blue tongue appears more conspicuous against the natural background than a pink tongue. In addition, in the conspecifics model, its hue partially overlaps with hues of UV-blue spots, which are sexually selected traits in various species of lizards. Thus, the UV-blue tongue seems to contribute to the effectiveness of the deimatic display and its possible role in intraspecific communication cannot be ruled out either. 2) We detected UV reflectance in non-pigmented areas of the skin in the Leopard gecko (Eublepharis macularius). These form white patches...
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Human preferences to primate species and their consequences
Zelenková, Michaela ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
One of the most important traits of an individual is the appearance. Though mankind desires to unlock the "beauty code" for centuries, it is very difficult to do so. A lot of papers focuses on the characterization of appearance and preferences towards it. It is now obvious that instead of using just one factor to describe the nature of "beauty", we need to comprehend a lot of factors that put together the puzzle pieces of an attractive individual. Nowadays, a widely accepted fact is that symmetry makes facial and other body features attractive. Other important factors are averageness or so-called baby schema with distinct young features. Similar rules apply for evaluation of preferences towards other, non-human species, especially primates. The most attractive primates have facial features that resemble humans or that are round with big, distinctive eyes (baby-schema). Thus, for humans, the most attractive primates are the ones that are similar to us and that are large in body size, while the unattractive ones have an appearance distinctive to humans. Moreover, humans distinguish two main primate faces: nice and friendly, baby-like faces, and aggressive, dangerous faces.
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Aesthetic and emotional evaluation of butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera) and its implications
Končická, Anna ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
Animals play a significant role in human societies. As significant psychological stimuli, they evoke not only positive but also negative emotions. Human efforts on animal conservation are directly linked to the way in which those animals are aesthetically percieved. This master's thesis is focused on the aesthetic and emotional evaluation of butterflies and moths, using a method of ranking visual stimuli and scoring on a point scale. The aim of this thesis is both to compare various methods of beauty evaluation among a group Lepidoptera and to analyze the influence of butterflies' position on presented stimuli on the resulting beauty evaluations. Furthermore, this thesis focuses on negative emotions (disgust) evoked by butterflies and moths. Last but not least, the influence of morphological and color characteristics of butterflies and moths on beauty evaluations is analyzed. The characteristics and attitudes of respondents are also analyzed as a possible influential factor of the evaluation. It was found that all investigated testing methods could be used to evaluate the beauty of butterflies and moths and that they produced similar results. It was also found that wing positions of butterflies and moths have a particularly notable effect on their beauty evaluations, especially for certain species....
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Repeatability in the behavioural analyses
Vobrubová, Barbora ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Špinka, Marek (referee)
This thesis is focused on the repeatability of behaviour, a suitable tool for quantification of personality, which is defined as consistent inter-individual differences. It contains five studies, which view repeatability and personality from different angles. In the first study, I focus on the description of the history of personality studies, the most often mammalian species used in these studies, and I present a metaanalysis of the published works. The highest repeatability was found in activity, the lowest in aggressivity and exploratory behaviour. The following two studies concern the expressions of personality in exploratory behaviour of the black rat (Rattus rattus). The first one analyses habituation in the course of repeated testing, and found the most prominent habituation in head-dipping (looking in the holes) in the hole board test. This study also demonstrates the differences between different approaches to estimating repeatability, when the inclusion of systematic effect of habituation increased the repeatability estimates. The subsequent study measured the levels of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (fGCM), their diurnal cycle and the association with exploratory behaviour. fGCM showed themselves to be an interindividually variable characteristic, which is well repeatable, despite the...
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Phylogenetic relationships and evolution of the genus Acomys (Rodentia: Muridae)
Palupčíková, Klára ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee) ; Mazoch, Vladimír (referee)
The geographical distribution and phylogeny of the spiny mice of the genus Acomys Geoffroy I., 1838 remains a controversial and open topic. This doctoral thesis deals with the intraspecific structure and geographical distribution of the genus Acomys from the northern, eastern, central and southern parts of Africa, the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Crete, the Turkish coast, the Arabian and Sinai Peninsula and Iran, using molecular analyzes. Molecular analyzes were based on both the mitochondrial gene sequences of the D-loop genes (publication I.) and cytochrome b, as well as the nuclear sequences of the Intraretinal Binding Protein gene (IRBP) (publication IV) and recombinant activation gene 1 (RAG1) (publication II.). Furthermore, the data were subjected to phylogenetic analyzes using the Maximum Probability, Bayesian, Maximum Parsimony, and Minimum Evolution analysis. The results of mentioned analyses confirmed that the Afro-Mediterranean Acomys cahirinus and Asian Acomys dimidiatus are clearly separated. The large similarity between the haplotypes of continental Africa and the northern Mediterranean (A. cahirinus sensu stricto) supports the hypothesis that the ancestors of A. nesiotes, A. cilicicus and A. minous are very likely to spread as commensal populations, thereby challenging their...
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Migrations in the African Sahel through the view of the genetic diversity of control segment of mitochondrial DNA
Adámková, Kristýna ; Černý, Viktor (advisor) ; Frynta, Daniel (referee)
Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest diversity of anatomically modern humans (AMH). With the use of genetic analysis of mostly uniparental loci, gradually we can uncover the migratory activity of humans long time ago. This work focuses on the African Sahel. It is a long, horizontal strip bordered by the Sahara Desert and tropical rainforests across the entire continent. Favorable environmental conditions and the absence of a geographical barrier are suitable not only for mobile herders, but also for sedentary farmers. These provisos create high migration aktivity in the area. In this work, I newly sequenced 474 mitochondrial DNA samples of 11 populations. Populations of pastoralists and farmers are spread all over Sahel/Savannah belt. Intrapopulation analysis assessed diversity within the population and generally showed low values in pastoral populations, especially Fulani pastoralists in the western Sahel. Interpopulation analysis revealed bigger differences between individual populations than between populations clustered in the subsistence group of pastoralists or farmers, within regions or within language. The work included populations with Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan language families. Thanks to the Migrate-n program, in this work I was able to confirm the...
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Preferences and characteristics of movement in a horizontal and vertical dimension in the black rat (Rattus rattus)
Skalíková, Hana ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Sedláček, František (referee)
The black rat (Rattus rattus) has been one of the most widespread and economically important rodent pests for centuries. Yet, it is a neglected species in research, so we still do not know much about its ecology and behaviour. The aim of this thesis is to characterize the exploratory behavior of the black rat in a three-dimensional environment. The results of this thesis showed that the black rat, when presented with a choice between vertical and horizontal space, prefers to stay in vertical space at one of the upper height levels. We are thus inclined to think of the rat as a semi-arboreal species with a strong willingness to climb. Also, four exploratory strategies were identified in this work, some of which can be compared to fast and slow exploratory strategies. This work also proposed and tested an experimental design that is suitable for testing the exploration of a vertically active species such as the black rat. Keywords: the black rat, three-dimensional environment, preferences, exploration, exploratory strategies
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The use of genetic variability for the purposes of conservation biology: case studies of populations in captivity and nature
Opelka Somerová, Barbora ; Frynta, Daniel (advisor) ; Veselý, Milan (referee) ; Vojar, Jiří (referee)
2 Abstract In this dissertation thesis, I focused mainly on the topic of endangered species conservation in three projects, which were realized in cooperation with Prague ZOO. The other two subprojects, which are part of this dissertation, deal with the topic of genetic diversity analysis in nature and were realized in cooperation with institutions in Indonesia and Armenia. In all these projects I used a similar laboratory and computational methodology, although each project addressed different problems. In the main and probably the most important project, I studied the skinks of genus Tiliqua living in the Moluccas, New Guinea (Irian Jaya) and adjacent islands. I analyzed mitochondrial and nuclear markers to reveal the phylogenetic and population relationships. In the second project, I focused on the study of ex situ population of Mauremys annamensis in European captive breeding. The goal was to determine the haplotype diversity and detect the F1 hybrids in population. In the third project, I examined the genetic variability of Orlitia borneensis in European zoological gardens for the purposes of ex situ breeding program organization. The fourth project is focused on examination of genetic variability of Chilabothrus angulifer population, which is kept in European breeding. I studied ...
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