B2 Behaviour And Evolution Flashcards
What is behaviour
An organisms response to changes in its environment
What is innate behaviour
These are behaviours you are born or instincts. ReFlex actions such as sneezing or blinking they protect us from things.
What is habituation
It is learned behaviour,
Describe the process of habituation
If you give an animal a stimulus that is neither beneficial or harmful it will learn not to respond to it. By ignoring non threatening stimuli animals can spend there time more efficiently
What is imprinting
When an animal learns to recognise its parents and instinctively follows them. It is a combination of learned and innate behaviour
Why can imprinting be described as learned
It occurs straight after the animals is born they follow the first thing they see usually a parent. The animal has no innate instinct of what a parent looks like it has to learn this
What is conditioning
It is another form of learned behaviour
What is classical conditioning
When an animal learns passively to associate a stimulus with and important effect. I.e a dog associates a dinner bell with the arrival of food. This response is automatic and reinforced by repitition
What is operant conditioning
It is trial and error learning. An animal learns actively to associate an Acton with a reward or punishment . I.e rewarding an animal for doing something. It will continue to do this
When is classical conditioning and operant conditioning used in conjunction
A dolphin can always been rewarded with fish when it does a jump for instance if it’s in a show, instead the trainer gets the dolphin to associate a whistle with getting fish then whistles when the animals does the jump
Why do animals need to communicate
It can keep the group together
It can warn animals of predators
Avoid fighting
Baby animals can communicate their needs
How can animals communicate
Sound
Chemicals
Visual signs
How are chemicals used to communicate
Pheromones can be released to show where an animal has been this can be used to mark territory. Chemicals are also used to attract mates
How are visual signs used to communicate
Honey bees wiggle dance to show when they’ve found food
Communicate intentions through body posture for example to intimidate, some gestures admit defeat such as a dog rolling on its back
What do Ethologists study
Animal behaviour
What did Nicolas Tinbergan study
Innate behaviour in gulls. He wondered if the red spot on the adult gulls beak told the gull chicks where to peck to get food. He showed newly hatched chicks cardboard gull heads with different colour spots. The chicks pecked at the beaks with red spots most often
What is Lorenz study
Imprinting in geese , he made himself the first thing geese saw and those geese in group 2 treated him the same as group 1 did to their mother
What did Fossey and Goodall study
Social behaviour in apes. They discovered they worked together to find food , they protected each other from attacks, the males had a social rank system to prevent inner fighting. The apes groomed each other which reinforced a social bond.
What is a choice chamber
A container nth was divided up into sections
What do you do with a choice chamber
Vary the environments in each chamber and study where e animals go. I.e wood lice move to the dark damp area
What is courtship
It is a way to attract a mate. It usually involves a male doing a special show to impress the female . Court ship practices are often species specific meaning mates are only attracted by the same species .
Why do females select a mate
They have most of the child rearing responsibilities
What is monogamy
Staying with just one mate this usually occurs in birds, it very rare in most of the animal kingdom
What do males do in the mating season
Bang as many as they can, they usually have no part in the birth or care of offspring so they go off and mate with other females
How do animals look after theIR YOUNG
They protect feed and teach them new skills
If a species feeds and protects its young what does this mean
Usually both parents need to be with the young one to gather food and one to protect the offspring
Why do animals protect their young
It increases the danger for the adult but it increases the likely hood the offspring will survive. Looking after offspring is less risky than being pregnant, this means protecting young means they have to be pregnant less. Survival of the animals genes
Why do plants send out chemical signals
Attract pollinators. Insects come to the flower looking for nectar when they do this some pollen gets stuck to them
Attract insect predators, some plants release chemicals when an insect is eating them the predator eats the best mutualistic
What do plants do when being eaten
Some release chemicals in the air, other plants detect this and make themselves harder to digest
What is co evolution
When two organisms evolve in response to each other
Describe co evolution between plants and insect pollinators
It’s an advantage if an insect can reach pollen in plants that no other insect can stable food source so they evolve to gain that adaptation. It’s an advantage to a plant if the insect can only eat it’s nectar this means it is likely to go to other plants of the same species and pollinate them
Eccrine co evolution between plants and insects that eat them
It’s an advantage to a plant if it can produce nasty chemicals so insects can eat it, it’s an advantage to insects if they can eat this type of plant as it will be readily available as no other insects will eat it. Some inesects have evolved to eat poisonous plants
What is Ardi
He is a fossilised human from 4.4 million years ago. The structure of her feet suggested she climb trees, she had long arms and short legs her leg strucutre suggests she walked upright
Who is LUcy
Fossilised Huminid from 3.2 million years ago. More human like than Ardi. Arched feet more adapted to walking then climbing. Her brain was slightly larger than Ardi’s . Her bone structure also suggests her walking was more efficient
Name the species of hominids and when they were around
Ardipithocus species 4-6 millions years ago
Australopithicus species 2 - 5.5 millions years ago
Homo species 2.5 millions years ago to today
What provides evidence for human evolution
Stone tools do , the more complex the tool the larger the brain
How do we date stone tools
By dating fossils found with the stone tool, using carbon 14 dating , how deep the fossil is into the Rock the further in the older fossil
How does mitochondrial DNA provide evidence for human evolution
It is inherited from mother which means it is not mixed with DNA f father . Everyone on the planet has similar mitochondrial DNA this means wet of descended from one woman
How can you date using mitochondrial DNA
It has a very high mutation rate, you can analyse we the mutation rate and amount of mutations to find out how old the DNA is
Why is mitochondrial DNA more useful than human DNA
There are lots of copies of mitochondria in a cell therefore lots of copies of mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is less likely to degrade over time
What did migration cause
Changes in human behaviour
Why did migration cause this change in humans
As they migrated the encountered new environments, in order to survive they needed to change their behaviour to suit these environments
How did humans adapted to the coast of near east and Asia
Change their diet they started eating shellfish and seafood they had to invent stone tools to get to this food source
How did humans adapt to the Australian climate
New tools were invented or long sticks to get fruit down from trees
How did humans adapt to Europe
Change their diet to include the new food sources they found
Devised new methods of hunting to kill large animals, they hunted I’m groups
They build more shelters as the climate was cooler
Used animal skins to keep them warm
What changes did humans make to survive an ice age
Built more shelters, used fire, wore warm clothing such as furs, hunting for animals increased. They made use of more tools. Cooperation and communication this developed language humans needed each other to survive
