The Ways in Which Lobsters Outsource
I recently finished the book "12 Rules for Life" by clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson. In a very entertaining manner, he opens up the book by exploring how female lobsters make their mating decisions based on the male lobster dominance hierarchy. A pretty niche topic you might think, but in it are several key insights worth exploring.
Let's talk about lobsters.
Scientists have long studied the nature of lobsters because their nervous systems are comparatively simple and have easily observable neurons. So understanding lobsters has in turn helped us understand more complex animals, including human beings.
One of the things observed by scientists when studying these 350-million year old crustaceans is that they have a very clearly defined male dominance hierarchy. This is mostly rooted in the lobster's necessity to have a high-quality protective shelter where the hunting and gathering nearby is good. Now, with lots of lobsters meandering the ocean floor and a scarcity for quality homes, you can quickly see how territorial disputes might arise.
If there's not a clear difference in size and apparent ability between two lobsters, they'll engage in aggressive conflict that may lead to the loser-lobster's death. Iterate through this behavior many times and you have a set dominance hierarchy where the top lobsters occupy the prime real estate of the ocean floor.
Very interestingly, this established male lobster dominance hierarchy is critical for female lobsters to decide with which male lobster to mate. Instead of socializing with hundreds of lobsters, they go straight to the Alpha ones.
Female lobsters outsource their mating decisions very efficiently this way.
From this, we can draw a few insights:
Dominance hierarchies are at least 350 million years old (older than trees)
Nature (the outsourcing in this example) is very efficient in its ways of working
Natural Selection in the lobster-world has it's similarities with the human-world
I would have never thought studying lobsters could teach humans anything, honestly. But by doing so, it becomes clear how a lot of human behavior is rooted in ancient natural patterns that are consistent across other species of the world.