Term
| What Is the incredibly important sentence that you must remember about the four questions? |
|
Definition
Mechanism and Development serve Function through Evolution.
Mechanism and Development = Proximate
Function and Evolution = Ultimate |
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Term
| What is the difference between Ultimate and Proximate causation? |
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Definition
Ultimate is the Why.
Why did it evolve?
Why did natural selection favour a certain trait
Where is the origin of a certain behaviour?
Proximate is the How.
How is the behaviour achieved?
How is the behaviour inherited if it is at all?
Is it modified by experience? Is it innate, genetic, learned, what? |
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Term
| What are the three types of behaviour? |
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Definition
Basic behaviour
Organised behaviour
Complex behaviour |
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Term
| What did (Levitis et al., 2009) write about to do with behavioural dispute? |
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Definition
| Dispute of behaviour is the idea that it is sometimes hard to define an action as conscious behaviour as it may be simple learned responses with trial and error learning (operant conditioning) |
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Term
| Who was Tinbergen and why was he important? |
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Definition
He created the questions that animal behaviour is basically based upon.
• Development of behaviour (the DNA and genes behind it all)
• Mechanism (the brain function that controls the behaviour)
• Function (why does a behaviour exist)
• Evolution (why did the organism develop this function/behaviour in the first place) |
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Term
| How else can Tinbergen's questions also be described in a more practical scientific way? |
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Definition
Mechanism, development, function and evolution
can also be compared with:
Experimentation, observation, comparison and theory |
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Term
| What is the incredibly important sentence that you must remember about the four questions? |
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Definition
| Mechanism and Development serve Function through Evolution. Mechanism and Development = Proximate Function and Evolution = Ultimate |
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Term
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Definition
| It is the idea that animals will compete conventionally for resources and status. They will compete in a uniform manor and all be aiming to attain the same 'prize'. |
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Term
| What did (Edwards, 1963) find out about group selection in competition species? |
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Definition
| He found that in nearly all animal species where group selection was a large factor in their society, the winner would win with little to no uprising or dispute and the winner was the winner. |
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Term
|
Definition
It is an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy
It is a process that is adopted by all members of a species for group selection or anything that is practices in that species population. It can not be invaded by another strategy or overturned by another process.
E.g. Rutting in Red Deer is taken as red that that is how the dominant male will be decided. This means that another male can't come in and do another act to show he is the alpha |
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Term
| What assumptions does the mechanism of an Evolutionarily Stable Strategy make? |
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Definition
♣ Pop is infinite
♣ Asexual reproduction
♣ All strategies are specific to a certain purpose
♣ The competition between individuals is either pairwise or one vs. a group |
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Term
| What is the Dove Vs Hawk ESS strategy cost and gain hypothesis? |
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Definition
[image]
Image of the dove and Hawk contest.
This shows the different costs of two different types of species, a more attacking animal and a display animal. |
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Term
| What is the basic theory behind the Optimality theory? |
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Definition
Maximising the Net Benefit
Net Benefit = Chances of reproducing per unit time - Chances of dying per unit time
This is used to assess the overall fitness gained from a certain behaviour |
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Term
| What assessing behaviour with the optimality theory model, what assumptions do we make about the individual? |
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Definition
• We know the problem that the individual is trying to solve
• We choose the correct currency that the individual considers when choosing its action
• We know the other options the individual has and the drawbacks that all options could possibly incur
• We know the cost and benefit from all outcomes
• That the individual has the genetic variation so it has the ability to actually perform all outcomes |
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Term
| When should the optimality theory be practiced? |
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Definition
| Optimality theory will be used when looking at any behaviour to judge whether the behaviour is overall the best behaviour to be in use for certain tasks. Then one must consider all the options that the animal may be considering other factors or just not using the optimal mechanism to achieve a certain goal |
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Term
| What is a phenotypic gambit and what are its assumptions? |
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Definition
It is the idea that all strategies in a population are equally successful and are at least as successful as any feasible no occurring strategy that could possibly arise in small populations.
Its assumptions are that:
• Each strategy is controlled by a certain allele at a haploid locus
• Each allele is linked to a strategy and there is equal number of individuals with each allele in a population
• Enough mutation has occurred to allow each strategy a chance to be able to invade a population as it can be successful |
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Term
| What is inclusive fitness? |
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Definition
This is the idea that looking out for others will increase their fitness but possibly put yours at risk.
The idea is also based on kin, and that it is far more beneficial for the survival of your genes to help close kin but not so much to put yourself at risk for non kin |
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Term
| What is the prisoners dilemma and where can it be applied? |
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Definition
This is the idea of cooperation or selfish behaviour and the costs and benefits that each individual will endure.
The mutual cooperation is preferred by most species however it has been seen that in some species, cheating is seen but this is usually in competition species where they compete for mates or other resources |
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Term
| What did (Wilkinson, 1990) find out about prisoners dilemma theory? |
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Definition
| When using vampire bats as an example of a species that exists on a nutritional knife edge, the vampire bats will share food if an individual is close to starving because they are all close to death by starvation so if they cooperate they know that the favour will most likely be returned in the future |
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Term
| What is proven to be the most successful strategy for cooperation in species? The most successful ESS? |
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Definition
Cooperating with a new individual and then reciprocating the other individuals action by mimicking them thereafter
New theory of win-stay, lose stick is now thought to be more successful and a stornger ESS |
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Term
| What did (Brown et al., 1996) find about genetic basis for behavioural variation? |
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Definition
He found a correlation between the a gene known as FosB and maternal care in mice. The lack of the gene in early development meant that the mother had little maternal care and would not retrieve her pups when they wondered off.
This showing a link between genetics and behaviour |
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Term
| What did (Hoffman, 1989) find out about the drosophila and genetic linked behaviour? |
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Definition
| He found that you can phenotypically select flies that have certain territoriality preferences and then breed them to show that there is a genetic link to habitat preference |
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Term
| What are some different behaviours that have been found to be linked to genes? |
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Definition
Courtship song in crickets - Cross breed species and the courtship song is a hybrid
Migratory direction - Cross breeding tow species of migrating birds which fly in different directions leads to the offspring heading in the direction between the two parent directions
Nest building - Can select for size of nest preference and can artificially select for bigger and bigger nest builders |
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Term
| What is the basis of quantitative genetics? |
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Definition
| The idea that genotypic values + environmental values = phenotypic values |
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Term
| What is a quantitative trait loci? |
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Definition
It is the study to find where on a chromosome are the contributing factors that all add up to contribute towards an individuals trait.
We do this by back crossing individuals and knocking out to see where the basis of some traits come from and where the contributing genes are located on a chromosome. |
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Term
| What was the case study performed on C. elegans to find out about a certain trait and where it was located? |
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Definition
| A study of Quantitative Trait Loci, the C. elegans was used to find what gene was responsible for the feeling of touch on the nematodes skin |
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Term
| What was interesting about siamese cats in the QTL study? |
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Definition
The Quantitative Trait Loci study was interested in siamese cats because black and white fur had been linked to crossed eyes.
They found a t0 sensitive allele that was sensitive to tyrosinase and then this caused loss of melanin (hence the fur) and then the impairment of the retinal ganglion cell development with led to decussation of the visual nerves and therefore cross-eyedness. Decussation is the crossing of the axons as the eyes will communicate with the opposite side of the brain but the siamese cats optical nerves were very squashed and this meant they became susceptible.
The stronger the selection for the coat colour, the stronger the decussation |
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Term
| Does brain size = complexity of cognition? |
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Definition
| There is a correlation between brain size and complexity of brain thought processes however this is not a direct causation and is not a linear relationship |
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Term
| What did (Bird & Emery, 2009) find out about bird cognitive function? |
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Definition
| They used the Corvus genus of bird (the crows) to show there cognitive ability to solve some tasks like raising food from the water by displacing water with rocks |
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Term
| What did (Reiner, 2009) find out about songbird brains? |
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Definition
| Found that the classic view of the simple songbird brain is incorrect and a large proportion of the brain is for fairly complex thought processes. |
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Term
| What is a good sample animal for the difference of brain organisation between two seemingly similar animals? |
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Definition
The Otter.
Sea Otter and River Otters have different sizes of their brains in control of different actions due to the fact that they will feed in different ways. The Sea otter uses its hands more and the river otter uses its mouth so these parts of the brain are respectively larger to allow more complex dexterity |
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Term
| What is the organ for memory and which bit is which? |
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Definition
Hippocampus
Posterior hippocampus is related to memory and spatial navigation
Anterior hippocampus is related to mediating anxiety related behaviours |
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Term
| What did (Maguire et al., 2000;2006) find out about with taxi drivers? |
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Definition
| Found that the anterior hippocampus began to shrink with time and the posterior would increase in size as the taxi driver began to have to remember more and more information. Also found that it was different with bus drivers who go through the same routine but they have to remember less as they will have one specific route |
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Term
| What is cortical magnification? |
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Definition
| This is the diagram in which the concentration of nerve endings is represented on a diagram so the larger the body part is shown, the higher the density of nerve endings in that particular organ/area |
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Term
| What are the three techniques for testing hormonal control in a certain mechanism? |
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Definition
♣ Glandectomy (removal of a gland that produces specific hormone and then see the effect and then input hormone again to see the reversed change)
♣ Manipulation of hormone concentrations in intact animal to see if low or high levels of specific hormones will effect organisms in abnormal or predicted ways
♣ Correlational evidence - Just observing the difference in levels and behaviours, takes more time but less invasive |
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Term
| What did (Moore et al., 2002) find out about white-crowned doves? |
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Definition
| It looked at two populations of the same species of dove and they were in two different habitats, Alaska and Washington. The birds in Alaska had extremely high levels of hormones for a short period of time as there period for reproduction was much shorter than that of the population in Washington |
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|
Term
| What Is the incredibly important sentence that you must remember about the four questions? |
|
Definition
Mechanism and Development serve Function through Evolution.
Mechanism and Development = Proximate
Function and Evolution = Ultimate |
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Term
| What are the 7 levels of Tinbergen's hierarchical model for complexity of behaviour? |
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Definition
They are the different levels of mechanisms that act in a certain behaviour that will all round contribute to a much larger behaviour such as spring migration which is highest tier of complexity.
Example:
7th Level: Motor units in the body (Cells and such)
6th Level: Muscles working as an organ
5th Level: Fin Rays each individually working with other fin rays
4th Level: Fin itself, working on the body of a fish
3rd Level: Consummatory act, the feeding of the animal where the animal will coordinate the mechanisms to feed
2nd Level: Fighting and Nesting, to be able to know how and when to fight and for what cause
1st Level: Reproductive act to create offspring to continue the genetic line of your progeny |
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Term
| What are perceptual rules of thumb and stimulus recognition? |
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Definition
The idea that a stimulus is required to trigger an innate releasing mechanism that leads to a certain behaviour
This is the idea that an animal will see a shape or colour and perceive this as a natural stimulus for a specific action
Bufo bufo toad will react to different shapes that it thinks may be prey or a threat by attacking, making itself big, or hiding. This is controlled by the visual stimulus perceived by the visual tectum
Another good study is with the goos chick and the red coloured dot on the mothers underbill. The chick will see this red dot and respond fairly solely to the red dot rather than the plain presence of the mother, the bill and the food. You can recreate a super stimulus with a red coloured stick and the chick will prefer the stick to the red spot on the mothers underbill |
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Term
|
Definition
This is a fixed action pattern.
This is very hard to actually find a perfect example as it is the strongest of innate behaviours. Once the mechanism is stimulated, the action will continue until completion, wether or not the stimulus is still present or not |
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Term
| Why is prioritisation important in animals? |
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Definition
Different animals will have different prioritise depending on their ecology and there are also long and short term prioritise
Long term priorities are things like when to mate
Short term are things like when to hunt |
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Term
| What did (Podos, 1996) discover about swamp sparrows and physological constraints? |
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Definition
| Study found that when teaching swamp sparrows a courtship song, if you teach them at a much higher trill rate, they will make many mistakes. This is due to motor constraints not allowing them to perform at this level. |
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Term
| What is the problem with describing behaviour with extreme nuts and bolts mechanisms? |
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Definition
They are often too complicated when in good detail to be useful and it does not truly explain why the animal does what it does.
It gives a Proximate explanation but not an Ultimate explanation |
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Term
|
Definition
This is a 'time giver'. It is a cue that something must be done or something is going to happen. This is usually done by either suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) or the sun and stars, these are examples of mechanical and visual zeitgebers respectively.
Example of a social zeitgeber is from the bats, where in their caves they cannot see the light so they use social cues from bats near the mouth of the cave to let them know night time is falling and hunting is about to BEGIN! |
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Term
| What did (Thompson et al., 2015) find about circannual rhythms? |
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Definition
| They found that in an afrotropical bird, they have a small circannual rhythm that will control their metabolic rate throughout the year, which changes depending on month due to various reasons such as resource availability and temperature. |
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Term
| What controls the development of behaviour? |
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Definition
- Genes or Environment
- Maturation
- Experience and Learning |
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Term
| What is genomic imprinting? |
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Definition
| This occurs when two different alleles of the same trait are inherited by the offspring. The genomically imprinted trait is a trait from either the father or mother and it is silenced and not phenotypically shown. This means that only the trait shown is from the other parent |
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Term
| What is genetic determinism? |
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Definition
This is the idea that the future development of an organism is pre determined by its genetic makeup.
This is not entirely true as environment has a big influence on development, especially behaviour |
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Term
| What is the basis of the selfish gene theory? |
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Definition
| It says that genes are in it for themselves, each gene will attempt to spread itself through a population and live on for as long as it can. It will do this by introducing as many alleles as it can and therefore more likely introducing a successful allele that will continue in an individual and then on to the population |
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Term
| What is an example of a genetic problem that can just be controlled by the environment? |
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Definition
Phenylketonuria
The genetic disease that causes major reaction to phenylalanine. Can be prevented by not ingesting any phenylalanine |
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Term
| What did (Abu-Ghidieri, 1996) find out about development and learning? |
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Definition
| He studied the development of salmon and found that development and experience was the key to learning in salmon and even though possibly genetic basis, all the behaviours had to be learned with the functional developed parts for the salmon to be fully functional |
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Term
| What is (Dickinson, 1980)'s definition of learning? |
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Definition
It is the development of perceived relationships between events in the environment.
Issue with this definition and then defining learned events are:
Can be hard to distinguish between leaning and simple changing of behaviour
Learning may occur without any visual change in behaviour |
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Term
| What did (Rescorla, 1968) find out about learned behaviour? |
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Definition
| She used rats to distinguish the learning displayed when pushing a bar to receive food or a shock. Then the intensity of the food or shock could be manipulated and it would be shown that the if the food advantage outweighed the shock disadvantage, the rats were more eager to press the bar even if there was an even chance of getting either and vice versa |
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Term
| What are the 6 types of learning and who coined them? |
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Definition
- Habituation
- Insight learning
- Imprinting
- Classical conditioning (conditional reflex type 1)
- Latent learning
- Operant conditioning (conditional reflex type 2)
(Thorpe, 1963) |
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Term
| What did (Razran, 1971) define? |
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Definition
He defined habituation as 'learning what not to do'
It is the idea that yu must do this to avoid negative consequences but it is also the idea of getting used to a stimulus that you may have linked to certain repercussions however as they are empty consequences you can learn to ignore the stimulus |
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Term
| What did (Clark, 1960) find out about habituation of certain worms? |
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Definition
| She used ragworms to learn about their ability to habituate to a shadow that moved over the ragworm. After a while the ragworms stopped entering their burrow every time a shadow moved overhead. |
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Term
| What is the best example of classical conditioning? |
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Definition
Pavlov's dogs.
Unconditioned Stimulus
Conditioned Stimulus
Unconditioned Response
Conditioned Response |
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Term
| What is Operant Conditioning? |
|
Definition
Otherwise known as conditional reflex type 2, this is basically trial and error learning.
This is also how gambling machines work but they work under a random reward premise where there is no set reward for a certain act.
This is described in a paper (Berger et al., 1975) and (Yukl et al., 1972) |
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Term
| What are the two most famous instances of operant learning? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is a famous pigeon experiment that is often muddled up between operant and classical conditioning? |
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Definition
| (Moore, 1973) performed the study that looked at the difference when lighting up a square and feeding the pigeon and then changing the reward to either random or not at all and saw the outcome. It showed it was more of a classical conditioning response |
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Term
What is a keypoint about genetic basis of learning?
What experiment backs it up? |
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Definition
Leaning is as an adaption to the world around itself and therefore has as much genetic basis as any other trait that an organism might have
(Silva, 1992) used the gene knockout for a learning latency and showed that without this gene the mice had a much harder time learning things and took much longer to learn specific things. |
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Term
| What are the two types of imprinting? |
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Definition
Filial imprinting. Occurs at a short specific moment in an animals life, usually at the start where the young will imprint on an object/individual and then follow like a mother.
Sexual imprinting is a period where a young will imprint on a mother or father and then later on in life will look for a sexual partner that resembles the individual that sexually imprinted on them.
Cuckoos have a much longer sexual imprinting period than most other animals as theres stays open until they see their mother or same species relation when they return from migration |
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Term
|
Definition
| This is learning by watching. No reinforcement required, just watch how something is done and then being able to replicate these actions |
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Term
| What is the Garcia effect? |
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Definition
This is the idea that unrelated stimuli and responses will either not be able to be linked in animals mind or will be very hard to enforce. Also responses and stimuli that the animal would not understand or not be able to relate to are also very hard to link as they will not be natural in the animals mind
This is a typical constraint on learning |
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Term
| When it comes to learning, what is timing association? |
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Definition
| This is the idea that the response, stimulus and reinforcement must be close enough together for the link to be made otherwise an association cannot be made |
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Term
| What are the two laws of learning? |
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Definition
General Process Theory - all instances of associative learning will involve the same underlying mechanisms
Principle of equipotentiality - All stimuli events can be associated with equal ease in all species |
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Term
| What did (Olson et al., 1995) find out about different species in a competitive study? |
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Definition
| They performed studies on different jay species and different tasks and found that different birds were better at different tsks. With nutcrackers having an incredible ability for spatial tasks and being able to remember where items were that they had placed but it was average at non-spatial tasks |
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Term
| What two different studies were performed to understand the difference between social and unsocial groups of the same species? |
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Definition
(Carlier & Lefebvre, 1996) - Doves
(Huntingford & Wright, 1992) - Sticklebacks
These were to understand the rates of learning of the two groups that were raised in social and unsocial environments
The animals raised in social environments were able to learn to adapt to knew dangers in new environments much quicker |
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Term
| What are the issues with comparative studies? |
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Definition
| Different species are not identical and therefore there are mechanosensory constraints that mean you cannot do 100% identical test and then comparison so you must do as well as you can and create a good link |
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Term
| What is (Maphail, 1982)'s null hypothesis about animal intelligence? |
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Definition
| He says that all non-human vertebrates are of equal intelligence in the ability to learn as they are all specialised in different ways but share the same fundamental learning latency |
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Term
| What is the type of learning that is linked with 'true intelligence'? |
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Definition
Insight learning
This is the ability to assess a task and then with high cognitive function be able to link a solution to a certain task. |
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Term
| What are the good papers about Raven intelligence? |
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Definition
(Heinrich, 1996) and (Bird & Emery, 2009)
They looked at ravens being able to complete tasks of raising food in water by displacing water with bigger rocks to displace more water. Also able to distinguish that sawdust would not keep the same physical qualities as water so it would not work in sawdust |
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Term
| What is the Phylogentic scale for intelligence? |
|
Definition
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Term
| Why is living/habitat choice so important? |
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Definition
It is most important when raising offspring.
Indication that habitat choice was good is if the parent can raise the offspring to maturation.
Must include good resources and avoidance from danger |
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Term
| What are the two ways in which organisms will choose an environment? |
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Definition
Random settlement and differential mortality rates in the different quality habitats
Selective choice of habitat - informed and making sure it is right before settling down |
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Term
| What did (Wecker, 1964) discover about heritable habitat choice? |
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Definition
| She studied a prairie deermouse that had either come from a grassland or woodland area. She found that when the different animal was born in the area they were not from, they sought out the habitat that preferred and did not just settle. They also found physiological adaptive skills such as the woodland mice would learn to run and jump much quicker than the grassland mice, possibly because open landscape leads to more predation danger |
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Term
| What are some examples of physiological differences that lead to different habitat choice? |
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Definition
Coal tits and Blue tits have different feeding mechanisms and use different techniques to get into different foods.
These techniques were either adapted for the the scots pine woodland or oak woodland, which the Coal tit and Blue tit were more commonly found respectively |
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Term
| What are the details of the aphid habitat choice study? |
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Definition
The basics are that the more area of leaf an individual P. betae has to itself, the more progeny it will have and therefore the more reproductive success it has had.
It is more complicated as there are various sizes of leaf and then varying numbers of aphid on each leaf, more on bigger leaves.
Highly intense fights will issue for good leaf spots by mother aphids which show how important habitat choice and reproductive success is |
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Term
| What is 'Ideal free' distribution? |
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Definition
This is the idea that in a perfect world, each individual will have the same resources, space and equal share.
This does occur in non competitive species over time but is likely to occur in a more bias fashion with competitive species where a hierarchy may occur
(Milinski, 1988) witnessed a short settling time for ideal free distribution in sticklebacks |
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Term
| What are the assumptions for ideal free distribution? |
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Definition
• Individuals are able to sample any of the resources in any patch in the area
• Individuals know all of the resources in all the patches in the area
• When balanced at equilibrium, all individuals will be doing equally well |
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Term
| What is the definition of migration? |
|
Definition
The act of moving from one place of abode to another or the act of moving from one habitat to another - Dictionary
The act of moving from one spatial unit to another - (Baker, 1978) |
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Term
| What are (Baker, 1978)'s rules for migration? |
|
Definition
M = Potential reproductive success
H2 = New spatial unit
H1 = Current spatial unit
He says that migration is only an advantage and worthwhile when the potential reproductive success in the new spatial unit is higher than in the old spatial unit
H1 < H2M |
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|
Term
| What are all the different kinds of migration? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What are the rules of true migration? |
|
Definition
- Movement between distinct habitats
- Deliver an increase to individual or group fitness
- Non-accidental
- Temporally predictable (occur at a specific time)
- Involve a return journey |
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Term
| What is calculated migration? |
|
Definition
It is an informed decision to move to another area or group. It is when you decide that it is better for individual fitness for you to make a move
e.g. female Gorillas will move to another troop that is passing by if they see that the male:female ratio is mor in their favour |
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Term
| What is non-calculated migration? |
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Definition
| This tends to be exploratory migration, wandering around looking for a better environment to live and raise young. This is then followed by calculated migration to move to a certain area that you have found. This is seen in black tailed prairie dogs (C. ludovicianus) |
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Term
| What is temporally spaced calculated migration? |
|
Definition
This is the idea that different populations will make the same calculated migration at different times because of the reasons for migration, to avoid different predation or to get different food.
e.g. the ungulate migration across the savannah to reach new rains. Zebra go first, then the wildebeest and then the antelope for the different layers of the savannah grassland |
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Term
| Is there a genetic basis for migration? |
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Definition
In many animals yes, this is the innate migration and by which it is neither calculated or non-calculated.
(Berthed et al., 1990) crossbred two different populations of S. atricapilla that migrated in different directions and found the offspring would migrate in a mix of these two directions.
Also evidence shown in migratory restlessness when a caged bird with good conditions will flap like fuck when it is migratory season |
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|
Term
| What is intraspecifc differential migration? |
|
Definition
| This is the idea that in a population, migration will benefit some individuals but not all. This leads to partial migration of a population |
|
|
Term
| What is the difference between orientation and navigation? |
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Definition
Orientation - taking up a particular bearing with respect to the current position or a ‘landmark’
Navigation - finding the way from the present position to a given destination |
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|
Term
| What is the difference between kinesis and taxes? |
|
Definition
Kinesis is orientation without a direction stimulus. detection of good or poor conditions will lead to different rates of movement. (e.g. move faster in hot conditions to try to get out of the conditions)
Taxes is the orientation around a directional stimulus, usually moving towards or away the stimulus that will have better conditions to current conditions (e.g. moving towards area of better pH as you can tell where is better and worse) |
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Term
| What is an example of an animal that uses electrolocation? |
|
Definition
Any individual of the 39 species of the Gymnotus genus
(Knifefish) |
|
|
Term
| What are the cues use for long distance navigation? |
|
Definition
¥ Celestial cues (stars)
¥ Earth’s magnetic field
¥ Gravitational field
¥ Barometric pressure (atmospheric pressure)
¥ Polarised light (sun)
¥ Landmarks
¥ Odour
¥ Infrasound (sound at lower frequency than human audibility) |
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|
Term
| What did (Matthews, 1953) find out about pigeon navigation? |
|
Definition
He found that they used a sun compass to navigate and get around.
(Kramer, 1957) found this also in Starling as he used small mirrors to change the angle of the sun and found they followed different angles of flight that were complementary to the manipulated angle |
|
|
Term
| What did (Schmidt & Kroenig, 1960) find out about pigeon navigation? |
|
Definition
They found that if you clock shift a pigeon, it will follow the the manipulated sun direction however if it was an overcast day, they were able to follow the same direction as the control pigeons, thus showing they had another navigational strategy.
They also use magnetic field |
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Term
| What did (Mouritsen & Larsen, 2001) find out abut celestial navigation? |
|
Definition
| They studied Flycatchers in a planetarium and manipulated the celestial arrangement to find that flycatchers will use stars for navigation |
|
|
Term
| What did (Keary et al., 2009) find out abut magnetic navigation? |
|
Definition
They studied the zebra finch and they found that they will used magnetic field to navigate short journeys, they found this by manipulating the field with a Helmhotlz coil
(Baker & Mather, 1982) did the same with a Noctua pronuba Moth |
|
|
Term
| What is responsible for the birds ability to navigate using magnetic field? |
|
Definition
| (Semm & Beason, 1990) found that a small organ above the beak called a Magnetite and this will communicate with navigational systems in the brain for magnetic field use |
|
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Term
| What did (Hasler & Scholtz, 1983) find out about odour cues in navigation? |
|
Definition
| They studied Coho salmon and they found that the salmon rely on a chemical known as morpholine which is what they are imprinted with at birth in their birthplace and this is how they will return to their birthplace when they go to reproduce |
|
|
Term
| What is the innate navigational cue used by pigeons? |
|
Definition
Probably the magnetic field as scientist can manipulate the sun cue more easily than the magnetic cue and the magnetic cue appears to be more learned and will probably be calibrated by the magnetic field cue.
This is integration of cues and being able to use more than one so that if one is not present, others can still be used. |
|
|
Term
| What is basic aim of feeding? |
|
Definition
| It allows for short term survival and repetitive feeding increases survival allowing life for reproduction |
|
|
Term
| What is the key point about the value of food which can also be applied to other resources? |
|
Definition
| Also these values will also change depending on different animals, different animals will give more value to different foods |
|
|
Term
| What is strategic foraging? |
|
Definition
| It is the idea that foraging must be calculated for optimal values gained with minimum values lost. |
|
|
Term
| What was the prime example of the strategic foraging we looked at? |
|
Definition
| Oystercatchers. Genus - Haematopus They will go for med-larg oysters as they know they will have good enough nutrients to warrant breaking them open but not big enough to pose a large risk of breaking the bird's bill. Bill breakage will often lead to starvation and death (Rutten et al., 2006) looked at these Haematomus in a study to look at cockle size and risk of bill breakage. |
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Term
| What was (Pyke, 1984)'s main argument against optimal feeding? |
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Definition
| He said that feeding may not and could not be optimal all the time for every animal as many animals have to get a very wide range of nutrients in their diet that are vital for survival but may take large handling or search time |
|
|
Term
| What does the optimal foraging model contain? |
|
Definition
The decision variable - whether to go for certain prey or not and to look for the next one
Currency
- Must correlate with fitness and be beneficial to LRS
- Must maximise the (Energy gain)/(Search+Handling time)
Constraints
- limitations in physiological ability
- The nutrient requirement of the animal
- environmental constraints |
|
|
Term
| How do you calculate the profitability of a food source? |
|
Definition
| This is the Energy gained from the source ÷ time spent handling |
|
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Term
| How does an animal know when to move on to another prey item? |
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Definition
| When: (energy gain from the current prey)÷(handling time of current prey) becomes lower than (energy gain from next prey)÷(handling time+search time for the next prey) Search time is the random variable in the calculation as it could be large or small. If animal can see the next energy source when feeding on current source however we can assume search time is 0 |
|
|
Term
| What is the optimal patch choice model? |
|
Definition
This is the model used to explain the best time to leave a patch in search for a new one.
It maximises the energy gain÷time taken |
|
|
Term
| What is the graph used to show energy gain and time spent in a patch? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What are the two golden rules for optimal foraging? |
|
Definition
1. Always eat the most profitable prey type, but include less profitable prey when most profitable becomes rare.
2. It is the abundance of the most profitable prey item that dictates when to switch preference |
|
|
Term
| What is the key point of the patch choice model? |
|
Definition
The longer the travel time to a new patch, the longer the amount of time is optimal for foraging in the current patch
This is based on (Charnel, 1976) material |
|
|
Term
| What are the factors that will often prevent optimal foraging? |
|
Definition
- minimum nutrient requirements
- avoidance of toxins
- starvation risk avoidance
- predation risk
- additional constraints (Having to eat stones to breakdown cellulose, having to regurgitate and swallow food again, having to eat dirt to counteract toxins digested in food source (red and green macaws)) |
|
|
Term
| What did (Schmid-Hempel, 1986) find out about optimal foraging? |
|
Definition
He looked at honeybees and there profitability of nectar gathering. This was based on the idea that the more nectar they would gather, the more energy was required to carry the nectar. This would be simple to map but the distance variable of the flower/patch to hive has to be considered.
The data fit the efficiency model rather than the profitability. |
|
|
Term
| What are the two living styles when feeding in groups? |
|
Definition
| Social aggregation and Territoriality. They are not mutually exclusive and both can be occurring in the same population |
|
|
Term
| What is the best example of territoriality in animals? |
|
Definition
| In gannets, they will be the prefect distance away from each other to maximise the amount of birds in a certain space but also keeping the perfect distance away from each other. If they get too close they will attack one another. |
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|
Term
| Is there any genetic basis to the social aggregation or territoriality behaviour? |
|
Definition
A studied performed by (de Bono, 2003) found that there was definitely in C. elegans which could mean a certain degree in animals also.
He found this be knowing out the NPR1 gene which led to difference in social and solitary feeding in bacterial food presence |
|
|
Term
| What are a few benefits to social aggregation? |
|
Definition
Many Eyes effect
Predator confusion
Predator swamping
Group hunting
Information sharing
Reduced heat loss
Protection from desiccation
Reduced Energy lost in travel (Geese in a V)
Selfish Herd |
|
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Term
| What did (Canals et al., 1997) find out about social aggregation benefits on metabolism? |
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Definition
| He studied rodents and found that metabolic rates in rodents in groups was lower than those in solitude. May be to do with warmth or being on high alert but it saved them energy |
|
|
Term
| What (Widemo & Evans, 1995) find out about mating advantage in social aggregation? |
|
Definition
| They studied the lekking bird, the Ruff, and they found that the males had more chance of finding a mate if the animals were in a larger groups because there were more birds for the males to mate with so the more subordinate males were able to be reproductively successful whereas if they were in a smaller group they would stand out more and not have LRS |
|
|
Term
| What two tactics are used by prey species to avoid predation when staying in large groups? |
|
Definition
Confusion and Dilution.
Very similar tactics to confuse the predator
Confusion is by creating large amounts of movement and Dilution is the basics of the there being very many individual
(Neil & Cullen, 1974) used cuttlefish to show confusion tactics
(Foster & Treherne, 1981) used water boatmen to show dilution tactics |
|
|
Term
| What is the predation avoidance trade off of social aggregation and territoriality? |
|
Definition
| When in larger social groups in can also increase the chance of predation avoidance as the less scattered the prey is, the less chance the predator is to find the prey. |
|
|
Term
| What is the selfish herd effect and when was it first described? |
|
Definition
This is the idea that in large groups of social aggregation, there will be competition to reach the middle of the huddle to avoid predation or to receive increased insulation
(Jennings & Evans, 1980) |
|
|
Term
| What is the many eyes effect and when was it first described? |
|
Definition
This is the idea that the more individuals in a groups, the higher the average amount of feeding time per individual due to the fact that more individuals are present to lookout for predators
(Barnard, 1980) |
|
|
Term
| What is the Producer and Scrounger feeding method effect and when was it first described? |
|
Definition
It is the idea that more dominant birds will be scroungers and subordinates will be producers that get the food. It worked for both parties as the subordinates were still able to get to the food as they found it first and would have primary feeding time before the scroungers would swoop in and steal the prize]
(Barnard & Sibly, 1980) |
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Term
| In social aggregation, is there such thing as an optimal group size? |
|
Definition
This idea was first explored by (Sibly, 1983), realising that in many animals, individual an group fitness increased when group sizes increased however this could not be linear and couldn't go on forever
[image] [image]
This was also looked upon by (Pride, 2005) who looked at optimal group size for ring tailed lemurs and found that differing environmental conditions led to differing optimal group sizes |
|
|
Term
| What are some disadvantages to living in groups? |
|
Definition
- Direct competition, the more there are, the less resources each individual will get
- Predator groups are far more easily detectable so must develop other pack methods
- Predators may go for larger groups of prey (more chance)
- Increased group sizes leads to increased chance of pathogen spread |
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|
Term
| Where is misdirected parental care seen (apart from cuckoos and such)? |
|
Definition
| In high population groups of Canada Geese, mothers can get confused and be left with offspring that are not their own but look after it anyway because the true mother may have flown away or lost it |
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|
Term
| What are the main reasons for a having a territory? |
|
Definition
They will come with exclusivity leading to increased feeding and mating benefits aided by the idea of less competition from outsiders
However there is optimum territory size as you must not bother defending a territory size that is bigger than needed as it is a waste of resources |
|
|
Term
| Is there such thing as optimal territory? |
|
Definition
Yes, this is when the territory size will be big enough to access all the required resources but small enough that the cost of defending it is not too big.
This behaviour was observed in Selasphorous rufus by (Carpenter et al., 1983) |
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|
Term
| What is a good example of heritable dominant genetics? |
|
Definition
| Matrilineal dominance in Rhesus macaques, the daughters of the dominant female will outrank the sisters of the dominant female in the social hierarchy. This is possibly due to the inheritance of the more dominant genes. |
|
|
Term
| What is matrilineal dominance? |
|
Definition
This is the idea that dominant mother will give rise to dominant offspring. The premise that it is kept in dominant genetics.
This can often be challenged however in competition species and others can fight or compete for the dominance. |
|
|
Term
| What is the basic animal behaviour definition of communication? |
|
Definition
It is the intentional signal sent from a sender to convey an amount of information to a receiver
Signal must be perceived by the receiver in the intended way (in the correct information) despite attenuation from the surroundings
The response from the receiver must correlate to the message that was desired to be sent by the sender
If failure of any of the above, this is miscommunication or failure of communication |
|
|
Term
| What did (Krebs & Dawkins, 1978) find out about communication basics? |
|
Definition
They created the communication table whereby the communication can be manipulated in several ways
[image]
This is the conspirational whispers vs exaggerated advertisements |
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|
Term
| What is the best example of manipulation of communication that you found Tom? |
|
Definition
(Bro-Jørgenson & Pangle, 2010)
They looked at the Topi antelope making distress alarm calls when a rival male is mating with a desired female mate. This will stop the copulation and allow for the either a cheating male to get reproductively successful or at least rival for dominance |
|
|
Term
| What is Eavesdropping and what is an example? |
|
Definition
This is when an animal will listen in for other individuals communication and then take advantage of the information they have overheard.
This can be intra or inter specific.
Inter - Fringe lipped bats will over hear the calls from turanga frogs and they will listen for the loudest intensity calls as this indicates largest group of frogs and therefore highest chance of catching one for prey
Intra - (Hickey & Fenton, 1990) looked at red bats and found that use echolocation to learn of the presence of nearby prey without giving their location away |
|
|
Term
| What is an example of manipulation that isn't (Bro-Jørgenson & Pangle, 2010)? |
|
Definition
(Davies & Brooke, 1989) studied the cuckoo bird and how it will manipulate the foster parent bird into giving it all the food that it will require and neglect the other chicks in the nest
Also looked at egg manipulation and found the presence of egg shape and colour matching so the bird would not kick the cuckoo egg out. |
|
|
Term
| When is spite seen in nature? |
|
Definition
It is argued that infanticide is a sign of spiteful behaviour however often it is an organism that is just trying to maximise LRS and therefore is more innate than cognitive spiteful behaviour.
Spite is seen in human nature however |
|
|
Term
| What is honest signalling? |
|
Definition
| This is the case of not being able to lie about a certain trait or information. Very rarely is manipulation even possible due to the physiological restrictions of many calls or signals. Each individual will be trying their very hardest to succeed in their communication and therefore hard for any individual to cheat |
|
|
Term
| What did (Dawkins & Guildford, 1991) find out about honest signalling? |
|
Definition
Looked at the different costs of assessing signals from individuals in some species.
Found that in species where an individual would have high cost to assess a signal, the sending individual found that they would be able to manipulate a lower cost signal that would be easier to assess and therefore the sender may be able to send false signals that would cost less |
|
|
Term
| Why is Kin signalling often very hard to manipulate? |
|
Definition
It is based on template matching whereby an individual will know certain characteristics of their kin and know when someone is it or not. Often based on MHC which can be odour related and will be easy to identify kin
Often spatial location of if they are in my nest/area and always have been, they are probably mine |
|
|
Term
| What are the different classes of alarm calls? |
|
Definition
Direct to Predator - Deter future attack by predator
Direct to Conspecifics - Manipulate fellow prey into capture, Improve own escape by synched response, Protect mate, Maintain optimal group size
Indirect to Conspecifics - Increase survival of relatives |
|
|
Term
| What is the good avian example of alarm calls? |
|
Definition
Small songbirds will be able to create different pitches of alarm call that either only they will be able to hear or for them and a potential predator can hear
Seet call: This will be to other songbirds to hide and avoid sight from the predator above
Mobbing call: This will be to any birds in the area when the redactor is in the close vicinity to mob and irritate the predator to try and drive it away |
|
|
Term
| What did (Sherman, 1977) find out about alarm calls? |
|
Definition
He looked at Belding's ground squirrels and found that the males would be the most frequent callers and that they would be calling mostly when close kin were around.
They would alarm others that were not kin but they would not be as attentive or as intense in the calling |
|
|
Term
| What did (Grüter & Farina, 2009) find out about the waggle dance? |
|
Definition
| They performed huge study on the bumblebees and their use of the waggle dance for direction, distance and quality of good flower patch. |
|
|
Term
| What information is conveyed in a waggle dance? |
|
Definition
Direction
Distance
Quality
Food source or new hive choice |
|
|
Term
| What is the evolution of the waggle dance? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
This is when there is sexual dimorphism in the gametes.
Sperm and eggs are anisogamous.
(Parker et al., 1972) |
|
|
Term
| What does anisogamous sex lead to? |
|
Definition
Parental investment
Sex ratios
Mating systems
Competition to attract or access a mate
All makes up sexual selection |
|
|
Term
| What is the Bateman principle and when was it coined? |
|
Definition
1948
It is the idea that mean reproductive success between the sexes in a sexual reproductive species is the same however the variance for male reproductive success is far higher than females.
Most females will have an average amount of RS whereas fewer males will have a much wider range of RS
It is also the basis that male RS is based upon reproductive effort whereas with females it is controlled by the egg availability and therefore there put effort into parental care |
|
|
Term
| What are the different mating systems? |
|
Definition
Extreme resource defence - Secure territory that is guarded to extremes
Lek - Where the males will compete in showing off highly sexually selected secondary characteristics
Harem Territory - territories that are patrolled by a gaggle of females/offspring and a dominant male
Male Matrix - Lots of individual male territories which the gaggle of females will switch between
Sublease Territory - Where females exist in a dominant males territory however the females have their own territory in the males territory
Pairing - Male female pairs will have their own territory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| This is one female and one male sexual relationship |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| This is multiple female or male or both in a sexual relationship |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| This is one male and multiple female sexual relationship |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| This is on female and multiple male sexual relationship |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A free for all system of a group sexual relationship |
|
|
Term
| What did (Emlem & Oring, 1977) find out about mating systems? |
|
Definition
They realised that female distribution was mainly governed by resource distribution and male distribution is governed by the female distribution.
This leads to the a point where there is rich widespread resource distribution, there is more chance for a polygamous system. Graph of this looks like:
[image] |
|
|
Term
| What is Polygyny threshold model? |
|
Definition
This was created by Orians-Verner-Willson and is based upon the idea of comparing the RS for polygamous or monogamous relationships in differing resource quality.
There is a threshold that once overcome will mean that polygamy becomes worthwhile as the RS outweighs the cost of sharing a mate |
|
|
Term
| What happens to the polygyny threshold as the territories increase in quality? |
|
Definition
The polygyny threshold will decrease as the RS benefits will outweigh the cost of sharing a mate.
Shown by (Petit, 1991) which studied the P. citrea which found that when territory was in good condition, polygamy was much more prevalent |
|
|
Term
| What are the benefits of polyandry? |
|
Definition
Can ensure good genetics (sperm competition and sperm holding)
Can secure more parental care and confuse the male parents into not knowing whose offspring it is so reducing infanticide rates
Female RS increases with more partners due to often male parental care |
|
|
Term
| What is sex role reversal? |
|
Definition
| In many cases of polyandry, there is much larger competition for high quality males and therefore usual logistics of polygynous male male competition is seen in females instead |
|
|
Term
| What did (Zeh, 1997) discover about polyandrous benefits? |
|
Definition
| Shows that pseudoscorpion species females with multiple male partners will produce more nymphs (offspring) than that of monoandrous individuals |
|
|
Term
| It what species is a good example of sex role reversal due to polyandrous mating system? |
|
Definition
African Jacana (A. africanus)
Wattled Jacana (Jacana jacana) |
|
|
Term
| What did (Davies, 1992) find out about changing mating systems in a population? |
|
Definition
He found that for RS, females will do better in polyandry and males will do better in polygyny. This is obvious no?
This can lead to Polygynandry and even monogamous cheating which is seen in the songbird Superb Fairywren whereby they act like monogamous pairs however they will cheat on their partners |
|
|
Term
| What is cryptic polygamy? |
|
Definition
| This is extra-pair copulations which will arise when an animal is in a pair sexual relationship but in the absence of the other pair will seek extra copulations to increase chance of increases genetic fitness of offspring Seen in blue tits by (Kempanaers et al., 1997) |
|
|
Term
| When is true monogamy seen? |
|
Definition
Mate guarding males (seen in Gryllus bimaculatus)
Female enforced monogamy (females preventing males from leaving)
Parental care whereby both stick around to look after offspring |
|
|
Term
| What did (Rodríguez-Muñoz et al., 2016) find out about mate guarding? |
|
Definition
| They witnessed this in Gryllus bimaculatus when successful copulation has occured |
|
|
Term
| What did (Eggert & Sakaluk, 1995) discover about female enforce monogamy? |
|
Definition
| They looked at Nicrophorus beetles and found that when the males has successfully mated they would releases pheromones to attract other females for copulation. The mated female would disrupt the male to prevent the signal. |
|
|
Term
| What did (Vincent & Sadler, 1995) find out about male assisted monogamy? |
|
Definition
| They looked at sea horse species, Hippocampus whitei, and found that the male will synchronise his hormonal cycle with the female to create maximum offspring and then would assist in the carrying and caring of the offspring |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| This is an are where males in lekking species will aggregate because they know of high female population density and therefore will lead to increase in female footfall and therefore RS |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| This is an extremely high fitness individual in the area of the lek characteristic. They will attract many more females and therefore more footfall for the other subordinates and then the males will enjoy increased RS |
|
|
Term
| Where is lek hotspot inheritance seen? |
|
Definition
| In wild turkeys, the genetic brothers will fight off other males in their dominant brothers spot to rid competition and increase their brother's chances. It return the brother will inherit the good quality spot once they have mated or gone |
|
|
Term
| How can you tie in social aggregation benefits and lekking systems? |
|
Definition
| It has been found by (Gibson et al., 2002) as well as others that high social aggregation and mixed species social aggregation in large lekking groups is beneficial in avoiding predatory risk. This may be to do with the many eyes effect, the predatory confusion or dilution or any number of the social aggregation benefits |
|
|
Term
| What is the large aggregation benefit to overall attractiveness of a lek? |
|
Definition
| Not in all cases of lekking is this seen but in species like P.carolinus which has the benefit of begin able to synchronous its light show and therefore creating a much more attractive site for increased females to approach was found by (Faust, 2010) |
|
|
Term
| What does a female gain when choosing a mate in a lekking system seeing as the secondary sexual characteristics are generally fitness independent? |
|
Definition
The ornaments of the lekking species are the flamboyant attractive parts. Females look for the best. Good quality ornament may indicate, good care, good resource capture and good health often.
Also can be associated with Zahavis handicap principle (1975) |
|
|
Term
| What is the distribution of parental care in different animal groups? |
|
Definition
Teleost fishes: 1/5 show prental care with 2/3s of them having male parental care
• Amphibians: 7/10s display parental care with50:50 maternal:paternal
• Birds: Very few birds do not display parental care
• Mammals: 100% show PC - Usually maternal |
|
|
Term
| What bird will display male uniparental care? |
|
Definition
Casaurius casaurius
Cassowary |
|
|
Term
| Which primate will show biparental care? |
|
Definition
| Saguinus niger Black tamarin |
|
|
Term
| Apart from forced male monogamy, what else is special in the Nicophorus burying beetle? |
|
Definition
| They show extreme parental care which is rare for insects, they will lay eggs near a good food source and then will feed the young grubs and allow them to feed themselves, she will feed the largest grubs preferentially which leads to increased growth in young |
|
|
Term
| What hypothesis do the fish, reptiles and amphibians tend to use when it comes to determining the parental care? |
|
Definition
Will differ in all but:
- Confidence in paternity, whichever parent is most sure it is there will look after offspring (often maternal)
- Order of gamete release, whoever releases gamete first will leave (often male uniparental care in teleost fish)
- Association, whoever is closest to the offspring will care for them |
|
|
Term
| In fish and herptiles who will usually provide the care? |
|
Definition
Confidence of paternity
Internal fertilisation - 9/10 mother
External fertilisation - 7/10 father
Order of gamete release
Simultaneous fertilisation (most species) - 8/10 father |
|
|
Term
| Why is unipaternal care often seen in fish? |
|
Definition
This is because often the job of a parent fish is to guard eggs and this can often be done by one individual just as well as two could.
Also the RS cost for the female is much greater when investing parental care than the cost to the males RS as shown here:
[image] |
|
|
Term
| What is (Trivers, 1992)'s famous idea describing what parental investment is? |
|
Definition
| Any investment made by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring's chance of surviving at the cost of the parent's ability to invest in other offspring |
|
|
Term
| When is parent-offspiring conflict seen? |
|
Definition
This is when there will be two unrelated offspring being raised by the same parent. The offspring will compete for paternal care as they will neglect the need of the less related offspring as it carries less relatable genetic information.
In fully related siblings, offspring will want more than their fair share of parental care but not all as they still look out for related sibling |
|
|
Term
| How does age effect maternal care? |
|
Definition
In a lot of species, the older the mother, the more they will invest into their offspring as the more time they believe they can take with the offspring.
This is seen in Kangaroos and Cervus elephus (red deer)
This was shown by (Trivers & Willard, 1973) with this kidney fat ratio study:
[image] |
|
|
Term
| What is alloparental care? |
|
Definition
This is invested parental care by kin or related animals that cooperate to raise other offspring instead of having their own.
Seen in many mammals and birds
Meerkat
Wild dogs
Long-tailed tit
Superb fairy wren |
|
|
Term
| When does cooperative parental care actually help? |
|
Definition
It helps in breeding patterns where the pair are inexperienced or the conditions are particularly poor and resources are scarce.
In a study performed by (Emlem,1978), findings showed that the cooperative parents did invariably increase offspring production |
|
|
Term
| What are some reasons for cooperative breeding taking place and not dispersing for own breeding |
|
Definition
Dispersal can be difficult or risky and the individual fitness will increase in group living due to social aggregation in these species.
Also constant residency will improves the groups competition for good territory and mates |
|
|
Term
| What did (Brouwer et al., 2009) find out about cooperative breeding with the Seychellian Warbler? |
|
Definition
| They found that when introducing Seychelles warbler, initially they would pair breed completely but as pop density increased, territory became harder to keep and have in good condition so increased cooperative breeding was seen. This is territory limitation |
|
|
Term
| What did (Cockburn et al, 2007) find out about cooperative breeding? |
|
Definition
| Found that when looking at the superb fairywren, the helpers tend to be sons of the parents involved. The son will invest in the other offspring unless they can find their own mate which can be rare |
|
|
Term
| What are the reasons for helping in cooperative breeding? |
|
Definition
Increase individuals fecundity
Increase individuals survival
Increase individuals breeding opportunities (through sneaky mating) |
|
|
Term
| How can helping with cooperative breeding increase breeding opportunity? |
|
Definition
Helpers are able to recruit the offspring raised to join coalitions in breeding to attract more mates
May increase chances of drawing in another mate which they may be able to court |
|
|
Term
| How can helping with cooperative breeding increase inclusive fitness? |
|
Definition
With helpers, the work is shared between more individuals and therefore the individuals are able to look after their own fitness more and all individuals fitness increases.
Also may come with social aggregation benefits |
|
|
Term
| What is the cooperative helper inclusive fitness equation? |
|
Definition
WIF = WH + rBH*WB
Inclusive fitness = Fitness of Helper + (relatedness of Breeder and Helper)*Fitness of Breeder |
|
|
Term
| What is inclusive fitness? |
|
Definition
| This is the ability of an organism to pass on its genes to the next generation, through its own offspring and that of its close relatives. |
|
|
Term
| What did (Emlem & Wrege, 1988) find out abou§t cooperative breeding? |
|
Definition
| They looked at the White fronted bee eaters and found just data evidence that the helpers are generally going to be related to the breeders as this will increase inclusive fitness |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Huge cooperation in social animals like honeybees, some spiders and naked mouse rats
This is where there is a queen and then social classes of animal |
|
|
Term
| What occurs in eusocial species? |
|
Definition
| Huge polymorphism within the individuals in different social castes |
|
|
Term
| What is the good eusociality cooperative breeding diagram with the diploid queen and haploid sisters? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| How is reproduction controlled in eusocial communities? |
|
Definition
| Bullying by the queen and other individuals leads to intense high levels of stress and then the subsiding of reproductive hormones in other individuals |
|
|
Term
| How is worker bee reproduction controlled in bee hives? |
|
Definition
| (Ratnieks, 2000) found that worker bees can in fact reproduce but when they do, they will lay the egg and then other worker bees will eat the egg if they detect it is not one of the queens eggs |
|
|
Term
| Why is a runt often laid/had? |
|
Definition
There are there on the off chance that the parent is able to care for more than it thought possible.If not, the parent will raise the normal amount of offspring and the runt will die.
Species with runts are more reproductively successful |
|
|
Term
| Why does asynchronous hatching occur? |
|
Definition
| If eggs were synchronised, there is more intrabrood competition and the chicks will fight more. However if hatched at different times it is easier to order importance of feeding hierarchy |
|
|
Term
| What did (Ayala et al., 2007) find out about chick gape colour? |
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Definition
| She linked that a certain colour of chick's mouth gape would receive more food and then hypothesised that the gape colour may in fact insinuate different levels of chick health and therefore more is invested into the healthy chicks to get them to survival. |
|
|
Term
| What is the sexual advantage for individuals in large social aggregations? |
|
Definition
More individuals are able to become RS.
This is because they are more females and it is easier to sneak a mate when you are a subordinate or below alpha status in the group. |
|
|
Term
| How does good parental care lead to good mating success? |
|
Definition
| Good parental care and resource defence leads to high levels of access to mates and attraction to mates |
|
|
Term
| How is sexual selection tied in to natural selection? |
|
Definition
| It is thought of in different ways but in fact these are two of the same processes really, in ideas that it is survival of the fitness however the characteristics for life fitness and sexual fitness may differ in some aspects. |
|
|
Term
| What is the difference between inter and intrasexual selection? |
|
Definition
Intra is when it is competition for access to fertilisation of other sex (e.g. rutting or sperm competition)
Inter is the compettion to attract the other sex (e.g. lekking) |
|
|
Term
| What is a good paper to explain Bateman's principle? |
|
Definition
| The elephant seal variance in reproductive success is seen in the (McCann, 1981) paper |
|
|
Term
| In what systems is little competition for sexual selection seen? |
|
Definition
- In species systems which exhibit biparental care.
In these systems, both parents will be raising offspring and have little time and resources to compete for multiple mates
- In systems where both sexes come into sexual breeding condition in synchrony, there is little chance for a male to be controlling multiple females. (Unless in Harem territories or extreme resource defence)
Also in purely monogamous species but these are often rare |
|
|
Term
| What traits have been seen to occur in intrasexual competing mates? |
|
Definition
| Often high sexual dimorphism |
|
|
Term
| What is the sexual advantage for individuals in large social aggregations? |
|
Definition
More individuals are able to become RS.
This is because they are more females and it is easier to sneak a mate when you are a subordinate or below alpha status in the group. |
|
|
Term
| How does good parental care lead to good mating success? |
|
Definition
| Good parental care and resource defence leads to high levels of access to mates and attraction to mates |
|
|
Term
| How is sexual selection tied in to natural selection? |
|
Definition
| It is thought of in different ways but in fact these are two of the same processes really, in ideas that it is survival of the fitness however the characteristics for life fitness and sexual fitness may differ in some aspects. |
|
|
Term
| What is the difference between inter and intrasexual selection? |
|
Definition
Intra - compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex
Inter- members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with |
|
|
Term
| What is a good paper to explain Bateman's principle? |
|
Definition
| The elephant seal variance in reproductive success is seen in the (McCann, 1981) paper |
|
|
Term
| In what systems is little competition for sexual selection seen? |
|
Definition
- In species systems which exhibit biparental care.
In these systems, both parents will be raising offspring and have little time and resources to compete for multiple mates
- In systems where both sexes come into sexual breeding condition in synchrony, there is little chance for a male to be controlling multiple females. (Unless in Harem territories or extreme resource defence)
Also in purely monogamous species but these are often rare |
|
|
Term
| What traits have been seen to occur in intrasexual competing mates? |
|
Definition
| Often high sexual dimorphism with often size and competition traits likes horns/antlers |
|
|
Term
| What are the two forms of intrasexual selection? |
|
Definition
Pre copulation and post copulation
Pre-copulation is fighting between individuals for dominance to settle asymmetries between contestants
Post-copulation is the competition between ejaculates - sperm competition |
|
|
Term
| What is a good sperm competition paper? |
|
Definition
| (Hogg, 1988) performed a study on bighorn sheep. These animals show signs of sperm competition which has probably raised from the fact that the dominant and subordinate rams will mate with oestrus ewes at an incredibly high rate and therefore there must be underlying mechanisms to find the fitness mate |
|
|
Term
| What two types of sperm competition are there? |
|
Definition
Defensive and Offensive
Example of defensive is the sperm scoop which will rip out rival ejaculate from the female to then replace with own (Wage, 1979)
Example of offensive is House sparrows which will have drill bit like sperm which will attempt to beat off the competition sperm in the female (Birkhead et al., 2006) |
|
|
Term
| In bird species, when is sperm competition seen and not seen? |
|
Definition
Birds that display polyandry/polygamy behaviour will often contain sperm competition mechanisms within the species (e.g. Passer domesticus)
|
|
|
Term
| What did (Baker & Ballis, 1989) find out about sperm production? |
|
Definition
Sperm production increases when a monogamous male has not been with their mate for a long time they will produce more sperm in an ejaculation.
This mechanism arises because they will believe they have not seen their female all the time and therefore subconsciously produce more ejaculate to counteract the possible cheating or such behaviour |
|
|
Term
| Why does sperm variation differ in species with higher sperm competition? |
|
Definition
| This is because sperm quality will be a highly selectable trait and therefore the males in a the population will all have very selected sperm traits leading to reduced variation |
|
|
Term
| What did (Anderson, 1982) find out about Fisher's runaway effect? |
|
Definition
He looked at the Long tailed widow bird and manipulated tail length to see how this would effect the sexual selection and found that it was wholly based upon the tail length and significant evidence for this highly selected secondary sexual characteristic
Linked to (Zahavi, 1975) with the idea that widow birds that are able to keep a long tail must have high fitness to keep it in good condition and live with it, may even be to do with parasite resistance like in barn swallows |
|
|
Term
| What did (Burley & Symanski, 1998) find out about sexual selection an fisher's runaway effect? |
|
Definition
| They looked at two species of finch and looked at the sexual selection for different coloured breast feathers and found that white feathers were highly selected however not 100%. Also found no link to higher fitness with white feathers, just highly sexually selected |
|
|
Term
| Are sexually selected traits ever honest signs of mate fitness? |
|
Definition
In the Gallus gallus, brighter comb colour will indicate lower parasitic gut presence and therefore higher digestive health. This may indicate higher defines systems.
Brighter red combed cocks are more highly selected.
(Zuk et al., 1992)
This is a perfect example of the immunocompetence model! |
|
|
Term
| What are the two indicator mechanism classes that will guide mate choice? |
|
Definition
Genetic - Indicators of good genes such as immunocompetence and good health
Non-genetic - Physical resources e.g. territory owner with good resources, nuptial gifts, fertilisation capacity |
|
|
Term
| What is a good example of a nuptial fertilisation gift? |
|
Definition
| Spermatophylax which is a nutrient rich gelatinous ball which some small insects like bush crickets will eject with fertilisation that will provide nutrients for the female |
|
|
Term
| What example of good 'good gene indicators' did (Møller, 1990) find with barn swallow parasite resistance? |
|
Definition
| Looked at Barn swallows and found that there tail length is an indicator of less mites present. This will indicate both good health and grooming. Also the chicks had less mites present even when raised by foster parents which may indicate higher genetic health for this mite defence |
|
|
Term
| Where do sexual signal originate from? |
|
Definition
Everyday behaviour that has been linked to a certain information convey and then the behaviour has become more and more extreme
Also links to sensory exploitation where a certain attraction has become more intensely selected so that the trait becomes more enhanced and intense (e.g. colouration or size of something) |
|
|
Term
| What is sensory exploitation attraction in sexual selection? |
|
Definition
An individual will cause a stimulus that will imitate a tempting stimulus to draw out a mate (water mite will imitate prey vibrations to bring out female to mate with).
This can be done with actions or colour stimuli |
|
|
Term
| How is sexual signalling so specific? |
|
Definition
The sender must send a signal that is both able to manipulate the receiver in the correct way and avoid attracting unwanted predation or risk.
This leads to extremes of traits and elaboration of traits (e.g. most pheasants) |
|
|
Term
| What are the components of receiver psychology when it comes to determining sexual signals? |
|
Definition
Detectability - must be able to detect the stimulus, this can be environmental and to do with signal association in the CNS of the receiver
Discriminability - Must be able to discriminate between different signals from different senders
Memorability - effective responses to certain signals will require learning of the signals, the more memorable a signal, the more favoured it will likely be |
|
|
Term
| Wha are the implications of very public memorable sexual signals? |
|
Definition
Can be manipulated by eavesdroppers and the audience
Can bring in more individuals which can then be use against the good signaller to sponge of the attraction |
|
|
Term
| What did (Møller, 1987) find out about certain status badges and honest signalling? |
|
Definition
Looked at the House Sparrow and found that they was much less aggression in groups where there was more variance in breast 'badge' size. This is because there was a clearer status badge hierarchy established. Also found that higher aggression groups had higher average breast badge sizes possibly due to stronger selection for the badge size
Also found symmetry in barn swallows tails is a highly selected trait as it indicates high health however the length of the tail is still the most important but there is symmetry selection within this |
|
|
Term
| How is a red deer and good example of honest selection? |
|
Definition
| The Red Deer will go through stages of settling dominance before a fight will occur because fights are last resources due to the cost they can endure. |
|
|
Term
| When was Zahavi's paper written and what was it about? |
|
Definition
| 1975, this is the handicap principle and its based on the idea that highly selected traits will bare a cost to the individual that possesses it. therefore the more extreme the trait, the more it will cost to posses and therefore the fitter the individual must be to poses as trait. |
|
|
Term
| What is the Zahavi handicap graph? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is the Immunocompetence model and where did it come from? |
|
Definition
(Folstad & Karter, 1992)
[image] |
|
|
Term
| What are the different handicaps that are present in species? |
|
Definition
Qualifying handicaps - Inherited handicap that it is shown by indivduals who are fit enough to carry it
Condition-developed handicap - Costly handicap will develop only if the individual is able to bare it
Revealing handicap - Costly handicap to demonstrate otherwise hidden quality (cock red plumage showing good guts) |
|
|
Term
| What did (Johnson et al., 2013) find out about handicaps in the Ovis aries male sheep? |
|
Definition
They looked at the horned males and the non horned creatures genotype.
Homozygous dominant will have extremly high success in mating and therefore low survival as they spend so much useful energy in the rut
Heterozygous will spend much less energy in the rut but still RS and they will thereofore survive much better and have higher overall fitness
|
|
|
Term
| What are the traits that are said to make humans unique? |
|
Definition
- large brains
- upright bipedalism
- conceptual thinking
- language
- culture
This is mainly just definition by humans and bares no actual fact that humans are special, just an arrogant human view |
|
|
Term
| What is said to categorically set us mainly apart from other animals? |
|
Definition
Culture.
This idea that we have certain characteristic rules of behaviour, characteristic ideas, material artefacts and arts. |
|
|
Term
| What are the direct comparisons of genetic and cultural evolution? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is a culturgen and where does it come from? |
|
Definition
(Lumbsden & Wilson, 1980)
It is the idea that a cultural trait is subject to some degree of independent evolution however it will require neural machinery and therefore genes is required for the cultural development.
This shows that there is a degree of coevolution of culture via the actual phsycology that they encode. |
|
|
Term
| What did (Hinde & Barden, 1985) find out about cultural evolution effect on mass market choice? |
|
Definition
| They looked at the evolution of the shape of the teddy bear between 1900 and 2000. This found a shortening of the snouts, increase of eye size and eye size. Called pedomorphosis and is an example of a culturgen |
|
|
Term
| What has yam cultivation got to do with malaria and sickle cell anaemia? |
|
Definition
| There has been a degree of coevolution of sickle cell anaemia around areas with high yam cultivation due to the fact that yams require standing water for cultivation and this then leads to more mosquitoes which leads to more malaria who leads to stronger selection for sickle cell heterozygosis. |
|
|
Term
| What is the phenogenotype model? |
|
Definition
| This is from the (Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman, 1981) paper and it looks at the transmission of culture through parents, peers, teachers and the like. |
|
|
Term
| What is the dual inheritance model? |
|
Definition
Different forms of inheritenace of culture
Guided Variation: Individual will be guided by will perfect will trial and error
Direct Bias: Direct copying of traits e.g. children across cultures like sweet food, but adult tastes shaped strongly by immediate cultural environment
Indirect Bias: Individuals will copy a cultural trait from a role model. More prominent the role model, more traits copied |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
This is an idea. It is the cultural unit.
First described well in (Dawkins, 1976)
A memes potency is based on their copying and transmission potential |
|
|
Term
| What is the paper that shows that modern man has the highest brain size/body size? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is the Encephalisation quotient? |
|
Definition
| This is the proportion higher or lower the brain size is to the predicted brain size relative to the actual body size. Human brain is 7.4x the size of the brain the our bodies says we should have. Chimps are 2.5x the size. Gorilla is 1.4x This was coined by (Deacon, 1992) |
|
|
Term
| How is brain size related to diet? |
|
Definition
In a study on primates, the brain size was linked to the diet of primate species with the larger brain size being related to higher complexity in diet. This is because with more complex diets you must be able to determine more good and bad foods, recognise them and remember locations and such. Simple diets are easier to navigate.
This may be where the development of the large human brain began, with stronger and stronger selection for higher cognitive function as the diet became more complex
(Dunbar, 1993) |
|
|
Term
| How is brain size related to social complexity? |
|
Definition
Higher brain size leads to more complex cognitive function and therefore the higher ability to use social systems and manipulate social behaviour.
(Byrne, 1995) liked increased tactical deception in primates to higher brain size |
|
|
Term
| What did (Miller, 2000) find out about artistic ability in humans? |
|
Definition
| Found that an increase in males, creativity and production was at the peak in 30-40 age group and then it drops after that |
|
|
Term
| How is grooming linked to gossip? |
|
Definition
(Dunbar, 1993;1999) linked grooming in primates to the sharing of gossip in humans.
However due to the verbal form of gossip, it allows for much larger and quicker spread of social networks.
Due to larger amounts of information n gossip this leads to higher selection for larger brains to deal with increased information sharing |
|
|
Term
| What is the idea of memetic transition? |
|
Definition
It includes a critical point at which a meme will get to a threshold of popularity and if it reaches this then it will spread through a population rapidly.
If it does't reach this threshold then it will fade and die out
Memes are still subject to stochasticity |
|
|
Term
| Why are human behavioural studies often controversial? |
|
Definition
There is a lot of subject to interpretation of the behaviour and there are many different reasons for behaviour being the way it is, not just instinct or primal nature.
Also we are unable to compare studies between other species in our genus as we are only extant species
Good thing is that we are able to talk to behavioural study subjects which makes it easier but they can manipulate their answers more easily |
|
|
Term
| What is a good study to backup higher rates of cooperation humans due to higher relatedness? |
|
Definition
(Segal & Hershberger, 1999)
This is the study that looked at higher cooperation rates of monozygotic twins rather than dizygotic twins |
|
|
Term
| How does human altruism differ to a lot of other species altruistic tendencies? |
|
Definition
Non-kin altruism in humans is often much stronger than similar relationships in other species
Non-kin bonds in humans can be extremely strong. |
|
|
Term
| Who is more likely to cooperate in humans in regard to acts of sexual fidelity? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| How is altruism and reciprocity viewed upon in human behaviour? |
|
Definition
It is looked upon as very good behaviour and is met with similar behaviour back.
Generosity and high altruism is highly selected by mates as altruistic individuals will likely give a lot in child care and therefore be a good parent to offspring |
|
|
Term
| What did (Waynforth & Dunbar, 1995) find out about human nature in personal ads? |
|
Definition
| They found that females looked for mainly evidence of good resources in their personal ads and the men look for good looks |
|
|
Term
| How is distinctiveness linked with attraction in human behaviour? |
|
Definition
Distinctiveness is linked with asymmetrically in humans and this is linked with lower attraction in a mate.
Male distinctiveness is linked to ill health as a child and female distinctiveness is linked to current ill health |
|
|
Term
| What did (Gangestad & Thornhill 1998) find out about female preference for male symmetrically? |
|
Definition
| They found that ovulating females will prefer the smell of a symmetrical partner and are more likely to then produce higher serum retaining orgasms and therefore increase the chance of fertilisation |
|
|
Term
| What is the famous Filial Imprinting case? |
|
Definition
| Konrad Lorenz with Greylag geese imprinting on his wellies |
|
|
Term
| What are two species of eusocial mammals? |
|
Definition
| Naked mole rat and the Damara mole rat |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Three biggest pieces of evidence for evolution? |
|
Definition
| Universally shared features, Hierarchical classification, fossil record |
|
|
Term
| Who was the first to understand survival of the fittest? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Who destroyeed the "continuity of life"? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Founder of paleontology but believed in catastrophism ……
But rejected the idea that their existence implied that evolution had occurred, dogmatically maintained the "fixity" of species.
Destroyed the Scala naturae
Animals grouped into phylum, no evidence of steady increase of complexity (vertebrates, molluscs, articulates (insects + crustaceans), and radiations). But man is different
He “proved” extinction since the extinct proboscidians (elephants) could not have remained unnoticed in some remote corners of the planet |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Scottish geologist, writer and publisher
Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) (Anonymous)
Principle of Progressive Development
He hypothesized that new species arise from old ones based on the observation that: i) the composition of species has changed over time and
ii) this change is slow, gradual, and unlinked to catastrophes (Mayr, 1982). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Scottish landowner and fruit farmer
Anticipated Darwin and Wallace,in appendix to On Naval Timber and Arboriculture (1831)
was the first to elaborate the principle of natural selection, but was unknown to both of Darwin and Wallace. |
|
|
Term
| Who first presented the idea of natural selection/ |
|
Definition
| Alfred Wallace and Charles Darwin presented the idea of natural selection together |
|
|
Term
| Evidence for epigenetic modification? |
|
Definition
| A study shows that when mice are taught to fear an odor, both their offspring and the next generation are born fearing it. The gene for an olfactory receptor activated by the odor is specifically demethylated in the germ line and the olfactory circuits for detecting the odor are enhanced. |
|
|
Term
| Why is the olfactor system uniquely positioned to address the question of nongenetic inheritance? |
|
Definition
| Each olfactory receptor neuron, originating in the nasal epithelium, expresses only a single member of the olfactory receptor gene family, and the olfactory neurons that respond to a particular odor can be mapped and identified. |
|
|
Term
| How did Dias and Ressler explore non genetic inheritance? |
|
Definition
Dias and Ressler modeled an ecologically relevant exposure by pairing an odor with mild foot shocks.
Trained mice to fear the odor acetophenone, which is recognized by Olfr151, and then measured the behavioral response to this odor in future generations
As a control, they used a different odor that was not paired with shocks, propanol, which acts on a different receptor, Olfr6.
When mice were trained with acetophenone, the F1 and F2 generations showed a heightened startle response in the presence of acetophenone, but not in the presence of propanol.
When the ancestors were instead trained with propanol, their descendants were fearful in the presence of propanol, but not acetophenone.
The authors showed that the response was transmitted through either the male or female germ line up to two generations, suggesting that sperm and egg DNA register the exposure as an epigenetic mark.
They found that there were differentially demethylated sites in Olfr151, but not in Olfr6, when the mice were trained to fear acetophenone.
the authors did not find a DNA methylation mark in the particular olfactory receptor genes in olfactory response neurons, where one would anticipate that the epigenetic memory would express itself.
There are still a lot of issues, much more complex systems would be expected for this to be transmitted, and it contradicts certain long-held theories, such as the removal of epigenetic modification after fertilisation. |
|
|
Term
| How is studying genome evolution relevant to evolutionary biology of animals? |
|
Definition
Tells us how fast and what changes can occur
Helps interpret patterns we see today |
|
|
Term
| What kind of changes occur in the genome? |
|
Definition
Single base pair changes
Insertions
Deletions
Chromosome breakages and fusions
Duplication of genes and entire genomes
Inversions
Pseudogene formation
Acquisition of horizontally transferred DNA
Plasmids
Transposons |
|
|
Term
| What is the FLO1 gene used for? |
|
Definition
| It encourages yeast to protect each other |
|
|
Term
| Which genetic changes accumulate quicker? |
|
Definition
| synonymous changes accumulate at a faster rate than non-synonymous changes because they are less likely to be removed by natural selection |
|
|
Term
| Are mutations always independant? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What is proposed to create rearrangements seen in primates? |
|
Definition
| Chromosome fission and fusion events` |
|
|
Term
| How have globin genes evolved and what is the result? |
|
Definition
Evolution of globin genes has been through duplication. The result is multiple copies of globin genes. Some have lost their function (ie they have not been maintained by selection) and these become pseudogenes (non-functional copies)
Not all pseudogenes can have been formed in this way. For example, mitochondrial pseudogenes are sometimes found in the nucleus. We do not fully understand how they got there. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| two mating type alleles. Each individual has a ‘master copy’ of each allele, plus a working copy. The working copy can be removed and replaced with the other type by using one of the master copies as a template. Seen in yeast. |
|
|
Term
| What causes homogenisation of alelles? |
|
Definition
| Repair being biased towards one allele |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When one gene influences many traits -this limits the types of genetic changes that can occur |
|
|
Term
| What do the macro and multiple micronuclei of the ciliates do? |
|
Definition
| IT is thought to help the ciliates adapt, with certain sequences eliminated in varying micronuclei. The rates of mutation also vary from nuclei to nuclei. The genes that code for precursor proteins for toxins have a much higher rate of mutation than the rest. |
|
|
Term
| In intrasexual competition... |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| In Intersexual competition... |
|
Definition
| females choose. (these two are gross oversimplifications and this module sucks) |
|
|
Term
| What 5 things does Darwins theory predict|? |
|
Definition
Populations changing over generations
Gradual change
Speciation
Natural selection
Common descent |
|
|
Term
| Body mass is proportional to.. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| How can creatures with a large mass be tall? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The ability of an organism to survive |
|
|
Term
| Components of natural selection... |
|
Definition
| Variation, Inheritance and reproductive success |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| represents average number of offspring produced by individuals of a particular genotype |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the average number of offspring produced by individuals of a particular genotype relative to other members of the population |
|
|
Term
| Natural selection favours changes that are |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| 1- s (s = selection coefficient) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| s is a number from 0.02 to 0.40 (why?) and if it is 0, that means no selection, 0.02 is 2% reduction/increase in fitness, 0.40 is 40%, etc. etc. |
|
|
Term
| A dominant allele will increase in frequency in each generation by: |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What does directional selection lead to? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| (also known as balancing selection) occurs when the heterozygote has an advantage over either homozygote |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| when the heterozygote is at a disadvantage, which normally leads to fixation of one allele and elimination of the other |
|
|
Term
| What is positive frequency dependent selection? |
|
Definition
the fitness associated with the trait (phenotype)
increases as the frequency of the trait (genotype) increases in the population, this may favour differentiation, and in the long term speciation |
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Term
| What is negative frequency dependent selection? |
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Definition
| The fitness associated with the trait (phenotype) increases as the frequency of the trait (genotype) decreases in the population - Balancing selection |
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Term
| What is Fisher's sex ratio model? |
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Definition
When female births are less common than male
A newborn female has better mating prospects than a newborn male, and therefore can expect to have more offspring (fitness increases when frequency decreases…).
Therefore parents genetically disposed to produce females tend to have more than average numbers of grandchildren born to them*.
Therefore the allele for female-producing tendencies spreads, and female births become more common.
More females then reduces the advantage for female producing tendancies |
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Term
| What is the neutralist - selectionist debate? |
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Definition
| it is a dispute about whether drift or selection is the primary driver of evolutionary changes. |
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Term
| What is the effect of genetic drift in a finite population? |
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Definition
| an advantageous allele may not be fixed, esp. if the population is small or selection is weak. Some alleles are fixed, other are lost and the fraction of heterozygotes in the population decreases over time. Separate populations diverge in term of allele frequencies and in term of which alleles are present = population structure |
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Term
| What does genetic drift reduce in a population? |
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Definition
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Term
| Where is genetic drift stronger? |
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Definition
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Term
| Why would rare morphs have an advantage over common morphs? |
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Definition
| Predators and parasites tend to favour common morphs, ironically leading to the morph becoming common and no longer favourable |
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Term
| What is the New World Monkey they taught us about's key feature, cos you know this is gonna be on the exam as its an almost worthless piece of individual knowledge which doesnt contribute much to the overall understanding of the module? |
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Definition
| Foraging groups need at least one dichromatic and trichromatic monkey |
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Term
| What are the three biggest forms of mimicry? |
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Definition
Batesian – e.g. Hoverflies mimicking a stinging wasp
Mullerian – e.g. unpalatable butterflies mimicking other non-palatable species
Cryptic mimicry – E.g. spider crabs on flowers |
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Term
| Why are species reproductively isolated? |
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Definition
– prezygotic (pre-mating) barriers e.g. mating call songs are incompatible
– postzygotic (post-mating) barriers e.g. failure of embryo to develop
– both occur in some species e.g. leopard frogs |
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Term
| What occurs during allopatric speciation? |
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Definition
Original population
Physical barrier develops
Reproductive isolation occurs
New range equilibrium develops |
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Term
| What occurs during sympatric speciation? |
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Definition
Original population
Reproductive isolation occurs in the absence of a physical barrier
New range equilibrium develops |
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Term
| What occurs during parapetric speciation? |
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Definition
Original population
Movement into adjacent (but connected) territory
Reproductive isolation occurs
New range equilibrium develops |
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Term
| What is Adaptive radiation? |
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Definition
| Rapid diversification and speciation to occupy ecological niches |
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Term
| Why does island dwarfism/gigantism occur? |
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Definition
| Increased competition and few opportunities lead to shortness to save energy, animals no longer limited by predators can lead to gigantism |
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Term
| What is the main advantage of sexual reproduction/ |
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Definition
| It allows the removal of deleterious homozygous recessive mutations |
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Term
| What is the main advantage of asexual reproduction? |
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Definition
| Allows exponential increase in population size |
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Term
| What factors limit rates of diversification? |
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Definition
Pleiotropy (one gene may affect >1 trait)
Genetic architecture (one gene physically linked to another so they are inherited together)
Trade-offs (trait may have >1 purpose)
Time-frame (there may not have been sufficient time to reach the optimum)
Past history (determines the starting point for adaptation) |
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Term
| What is a panmictic population? |
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Definition
| A population with no subdivision (what does this even mean) |
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Term
| What is genetic exchange mediated by? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is a metapopulation? |
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Definition
| a series of subdivided populations, connected by different migration rates |
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Term
| What is the Wahlund effect? |
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Definition
| In a structured population the number of heterozygotes is lower than you would expect |
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Term
| What is effective population size determined by and influenced by? |
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Definition
It is determined by the number of individuals contributing to the next generation
It is influenced by factors such as
population size and fluctuations in size -Ne is closer to the smallest population size value (the harmonic mean, not the actual mean)
unequal sex ratios
variance in reproductive success between individuals
population subdivision - There is a separate Ne for each of the populations - Overall Ne is influenced by factors such as migration rate between populations and the chances of extinction for any particular population |
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Term
| Why do endosymbionts promote aggregation and sibling mating? |
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Definition
| The chance of succesfully producing offspring is lower if both parents have different strains |
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Term
| What do endosymbionts in flour beetles cause? |
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Definition
| Infected males to be more fertile than uninfected |
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Term
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Definition
| Linked loci are inherited together |
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Term
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Definition
geographical distribution of genetic variants that reflects past events
usually found at broad geographical scales, but in some cases they are more local
they reflect past events – primarily colonisation history |
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Term
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Definition
| Slow growth, search cost - finding a mate, reduced relatedness between parent and progeny, risk of STI |
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Term
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Definition
| Faster evolution, clearance of deleterious mutations, generation of novel genotypes, combinations of beneficial mutations |
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Term
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Definition
| Production of different gamete sizes |
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Term
| What makes male reproductive success increase? |
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Definition
| As many matings as possible |
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Term
| What makes female reproductive success possible? |
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Definition
| As high quality matings as possible |
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Term
| What leads to exaggerated traits such as the peacocks tail? |
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Definition
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Term
| Sensory bias hypothesis: what is it? |
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Definition
| Females prefer a male trait not because of anything inherit about the trait but because they are evolutionarily predisposed to something like the trait, i.e. red berries predispose a preference for red colour |
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Term
| What is the good genes hypothesis? |
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Definition
| Good genes hypothesis predicts that females derive indirect benefits from choosing attractive males because elaborate or bright male ornaments will signal underlying genetic quality. |
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Term
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Definition
| Seperate sexes in animals |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
| Why would hermaphrodites develop seperate sexes? |
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Definition
| A mutant with only one sexual function is protected from inbreeding, or the reallocation of resources leads to an increase in fertility |
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Term
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Definition
• interdependent relationships between human and livestock
• a mutualistic relationship leading to a co-evolutionary process between human and their domesticates
• provides some of strongest evidence for evolution
• is not necessarily a slow process
• sometimes few genes involved, conveying large changes |
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Term
| What do ants farm and how? |
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Definition
| Aphids, by moving them around and milking it, Fungi, by protecting them from invading pathogenic fungi and bringing them food |
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Term
| What normally occured in early farming communities? |
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Definition
| more work, lower adult stature, worse nutritional condition and heavier disease burdens |
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Term
| What are the steps to domestication? |
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Definition
initial association with free breeding
• confinement
• confinement with breeding in captivity
• selective breeding and breed
• improvement |
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Term
| What are the three paths do domestication? |
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Definition
| Human directed, game management, commensalism |
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Term
| What are the selection pressures during domestication? |
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Definition
Human methodical choice
Human unconsious selection
natural selection |
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Term
| How have wild wheats and barley changed since domestication? |
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Definition
| Mutation that prevented seed stalks shattering was lethal in wild, but selected under humans because it was easier to collect seeds |
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Term
| Why do domestic animals have smaller brains and worse sensory organs? |
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Definition
| They are a waste of energy when they are protected by humans |
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Term
| Main changes in domesticated animals? |
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Definition
• Behavioural changes towards humans (e.g. imprinting behaviour) or compared to wild species (e.g. lack of broodiness)
• Morphological changes (smaller sizes, body size conformation (pigs, race horse),…etc.)
• Growth rate (e.g. broilers….)
• Fat (increase e.g. fat – tailed sheep, decreased fat in cattle meat… |
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Term
| How did agriculture spread? |
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Definition
| Conquest, spread of disease, outcompetition of neighbours - not multiple farming groups arising |
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Term
| Obstacles to domestication? |
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Definition
1. diet not easily supplied by humans
2. slow growth rates and long birth spacing
3. nasty disposition
4. reluctance to breed in captivity
5. lack of follow the leader dominance hierarchies,
6. tendency to panic in enclosure or when faced with predators |
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Term
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Definition
| inherited from both parents |
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Term
| Which genes differ between modern humans and Neandertals? |
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Definition
Repetin – protein expressed in skin, sweat glands, hair roots, and tongue papilli
– Melastatin - protein that helps maintain skin pigmentation –
Protein associated with type 2 diabetes in humans
and appearance and energy metabolism genes |
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Term
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Definition
| Evolution above the species level |
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Term
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Definition
| Changes in gene freqquencies |
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Term
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Definition
Fossils are formed by:
1) burial in sediment at the bottom of a water column or other sediment
2) then by one of the following: – compression before the organism decomposes- this leaves an impression of the organism’s shape
– mineralisation - where dissolved minerals precipitate in the cells, sometimes preserving details of internal structure
– cast formation - Infiltration of the decayed organism by substances that harden to form rock
– mold formation – the organism’s remains decay and the space remains unfilled
– unaltered remains (e.g. those frozen in ice) |
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Term
| What is the issue with fossil records? |
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Definition
| Fossilization is a rare event, terrestrial organisms were unlikely to be fossilized, and so are structures likely to be degraded |
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Term
| When was the first time we saw segmented body plans, notochords and exoskeletons? |
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Definition
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Term
| Homologous characters are features that: |
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Definition
| Come from a common ancestor |
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Term
| Analagous characters are features that: |
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Definition
| Are similar in function by evolved independantly |
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Term
| What are the three explanations for the sudden appearance of complete fossil forms? |
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Definition
• 1. We have no trace of earlier evolution (incomplete fossil record)
• 2. There was rapid diversification at this point in time
• 3. There was an entirely predictable exponential rate of increase in the number of organisms at this time due to an ecological ‘vacuum’ |
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