A video game designed for predatory fish might have unraveled some lingering evolutionary questions about group formation and movement in animals, according to new research that took a unique approach to observing interactions between real and simulated animals.

Princeton University researchers report in the journal Science some of the strongest direct evidence that collective motion in animal groups such as schools of fish can evolve as a finely tuned defense against attack from predators. This dynamic has been suggested by other research, but the many variables that can drive group movement have made it difficult to observe a direct link to self-defense, explained senior researcher Iain Couzin, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton who studies collective animal behavior.

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