Behaviour Flashcards
what does sexual reproduction require, and what does it involve
sexual reproduction requires the finding and
selection of a suitable mate, and can involve courtship
behaviours that advertise an individual’s quality
explain how animals have different mating strategies
some animals:
> mate for life and will only choose another mate if their mate dies
> have several mates over their lifetime
some animals:
> have only one mate for a breeding season
> have several mates for a breeding season
Describe how some animals, in particular birds and mammals, have developed special behaviours for rearing their young
> protecting the young from danger
helping the young to find food
sheltering the young from cold and wet
teaching the young new skills, such as hunting
explain why parental care can be a successful evolutionary strategy
for example:
> a bird inherits genes for good parenting
> the bird looks after its young well so they are more likely to survive
> the young that inherit the genes for good parenting in turn are more likely to have young that survive
> and so on
Explain how, within the animal kingdom, parental care may involve risks to the parents
predator may attack parent so it cannot look after children.
Describe the different behaviours exhibited by animals
a) innate behaviour - behaviour that an animal doesn’t have to learn
b) imprinting - a simple learned behaviour. imprinting only happens at a particular time but may last throughout life without change
c) habituation - simple form of learned behaviour. it happens when an animal switches off its response to a repeated harmless stimulus. this helps the animal to concentrate on changes in the environment that are important. this is most likely to increase the animals chance of survival
d) classical conditioning - occurs when an innate behaviour is changed through associating a new stimulus with the old response.
1) innate response to normal stimulus
2) added stimulus
3) added stimulus is associated with normal stimulus
4) conditioned behaviour
e) operant conditioning - a chance behaviour is strengthened by receiving a reward. at first the behaviour is chance, but the animal learns to associate the reward with the behaviour and so carry out the behaviour more often
Describe how some animal behaviour requires communication
social behaviour occurs between two different groups. it includes the use of different types of signal.social behaviour can increase the chance of survival of individuals.
Explain how animals use a variety of types of signals to
communicate
a) sound signals - e.g. cats hiss to frighten others, birds sing to establish a territory
b) chemical signals - animals release hormone like chemicals called pheromones into the air. e.g. female moths release pheromones to attract male moths
c) visual signals - gestures: such as head nodding or hand waving, body language: the position of the body can express feelings and emotion, facial expression: such as showing teeth
Describe how plants can communicate using chemicals
e.g. flowering plants produce chemicals to attract some insects. as the animal feeds on nectar at the flower, pollen attaches to the animal and is transported to the next flower the animal feeds on. mutualistic relationship helps both species to survive. plants also produce chemicals that affect other plants:
> some produce chemicals from their roots that damage the roots of other plants. this reduces competition for resources such as water and mineral ions
> some release chemicals into the air when they are attacked by herbivore, to warn surrounding plants. the warned plants then produce poisons. they only do this when warned as the poisons take a lot of energy to make
explain the work of ethologists
Tinbergen: studied innate behaviour of gull chicks. gull chicks peck at their parents beak to ask for food. tested different models of adult gull beaks to see which model the chicks would innately respond to and peck a most frequently
describe how plants and animals have co-evolved
co-evolution is evolution that is caused in one species by a change in another species.plants have co-evolved the shape of their flowers with animal pollinators so that only one or a few species of animal can feed at the flower. this benefits both plant and animal because:
> pollen from the plants flowers is more likely to be taken to a flower of the same species
> the animal is less likely to have to compete with other animals to get the nectar in the flower
Describe the evidence for human evolution, based on fossils
a) Ardi from 4.4 million years ago
b) Lucy from 3.2 million years ago
c) Leakey’s discovery of fossils from 1.6 million years ago
Describe the evidence for human evolution based on stone tools
stone tools give us evidence of human evolution. the earliest stone tools are around 2.4 million years old. over time more complex tools were made, and a greater range of tool types.
Describe why mitochondrial DNA provides evidence for
the African Eve theory for non-Africans
mitochondrial DNA is passed form mother to child. differences in mitochondrial DNA are caused by mutations. analysis of these mutations suggests that all people are related to one female who is referred to as African Eve because she lived in africa
explain why mitochondrial DNA is more useful than nuclear DNA
> many mitochondria in one cell contain mitochondrial DNA
higher mutation rate, so more differences between people
less likely to degrade in fossils than nuclear DNA
only passed from mother to child
easier to extract than nuclear DNA as more abundant
