Chapter 8 class (exam3) - Chris Flashcards
communication
ways of communicating
can communicate by marking territory - signaling you’re “there” - others will receive the message - olfactory sense.
happens when 1 animal’s actions alter behavior of another - both sender and receiver are benefiting
phylogeny
inferred evolutionary history
moth blood sucking it's assumed that the four species that pierce skin to obtain blood descended from 1) 2) 3) 4)
1) species that ate nectar
2) then ate juice of overripe or opened fruit
3) then soft fruit, followed by hard fruit piercing
4) then drinking animal fluids containing sugar, protein and salt: urine, dung, sweat or blood from wounds
Evolution of fly courtship 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
- solitary mating of carnivorous flies
- males give females prey prior to mating
- males swarm prior to mating
- males wrap prey in some silk
- prey wrapped in lots of silk
- prey totally wrapped, nutritious juices removed
- fly goes to nectar eating, a piece of prey remains in balloon
- balloon is empty
spotted hyenas communication system A) greeting B) females display C) Hypothesis: D) aggressive dominant females...
A) greet others by sniffing erect penis
B) females display enlarged clitoris much like a penis
C) system is related to aggressive group hunting, food competition
D) Aggressive dominant females get more food and have more offspring. their sons dominate others until they migrate to new bands, often becoming the dominant (only reproducing) male.
Hyenas
Increased ___ influences
increased testosterone influences dominance; females w/ higher levels were more aggressive and reproductively successful. Higher hormone levels had the side effect of causing masculine features as intrauterine environment caused development of penis-like clitorises
cladograms/phylogenic trees
reconstruct hypothetical evolutionary paths based on traits of related species
communication cost/benefit categories
- cooperative (honest) signaling
- deceitful signaling
- incidental signaling (eavesdropping)
- spiteful signaling (rare)
cooperative (honest) signaling
positive signaler
positive receiver
deceitful signaling
positive for signaler
negative for receiver
incidental signaling (eavesdropping)
negative for signaler
positive for receiver
spiteful signaling (rare)
negative signaler
negative for receiver
types of communication signals
- s___
- g___
- d___
- g___
- specific (affects conspecifics. attraction display)
- general (affects conspecifics and other animals)
- discrete (on/off)
- graded (variable intensity or duration)
Specific communication signals
A) characteristic
B) Primary function
A) affects conspecifics
B) attraction display
General communication signals
A) characteristic
B) Primary function
A) affects conspecifics and other animals
B) alarm signal
Discrete communication signals
A) characteristic
B) Primary function
A) on/off
B) sex attraction
Graded communication signals
A) characteristic
B) Primary function
A) variable intensity or duration
B) communicate levels of motivation
Factors in selecting a signal type A) E\_\_ B) A\_\_ C) C\_\_ D) E\_\_ E) R\_\_
A) effectiveness in reaching receiver (vision poor at night)
B) amount of information encoded (pheromones in wind are poor)
C) Cost of making a signal
D) Ease with which receiver can get message and find sender (vision good in open)
E) risk of detection by illegitimate receiver
Odd communication channels
- wave motion (water spiders)
- electrical fields (some fish)
- ground thumping (rabbit)
- hitting head on tunnel wall (naked mole rat)
Common communication channels
- pheromones
- audition and vision
pheromone communication channels
usually long chain carbon molecules needing specialized detectors. safe and low cost, BUT dependent on wind.
Audition and vision communication channels
generally effective but dangerous in revealing location
Environmental factors in communication
A) absorption
B) distortion
C) timing
A) sounds from 1500-2500 hz are not acoustically absorbed in a forest, so birds sing in this range
B) in grassland, wind and thermal currents cause distortion, so birds sing a wide range of frequencies from high perches OR in flight
C) Communication timing can be varied to suit environmental conditions.
Bee round dance
done in hive when nectar is good quality and within 50 meters of the hive.
other bees follow dancer, smell and taste nectar and then search near hive.
Bee waggle dance - less effort needed
less effort needed = more vigorous dance (conveying distance to go)
Distance signaled by (bee waggle dance)
1.
2.
3.
- number of times dance done/time
- # of abdomen waggles and length of straight run
- frequency of sound bursts
Direction of food is signaled by what part of the waggle dance
straight run portion of waggle dance
A) on a flat surface outside the hive the straight run is aimed …
B) on the vertical inside surface the straight run’s __
A) aimed directly at the food location.
B) deviation from the perpendicular line of gravity equals angle of food from direction of sun.
How direction and waggle dance indicates food location:
A) flower patch in direction toward sun - go ___
B) flower patch away from sun = go __
A) go up
B) go down
waggle dance also used for __ __ and ___
water sources and new hive sites
all honeybees
dance.
3 other species in genus Apis are tropical, 2 act like Honey bees.
(a kind of bee) the Florca has a simple nest and ___ waggle dance (instead of ____)
has simple nest and horizontal direction waggle dance NOT vertical
horizontal direction waggle dance (instead of vertical) seems an
older behavior, with dance moved to vertical as hives lost horizontal space and (in tropics) sun seems up.
more distant relatives have various systems: A) trigona droryna: what do they do? B) t. postica: lays p\_\_\_\_ C) genus melipona: D) m. panimica
A) dances or moves and hums, gives odor samples (no direction / distance cues)
B) lays pheromone trail every few yards, lead others back
C) gives distance by length sound pulses, direction by short flights followed by going to the food
D) gives auditory signals - both smell and sound seem to signal height (important in tropics) a cue honey bees don’t need
distance communication probably evolved
first as excitation to close food
direction communication may have begun with
- excitement, then
- leading others
- briefer leading flights
- dances
[Fossil evidence]
A) dinos
B) extinct aquatic insect larva had ___
C) stoneflies have
A) Dinos: not great (fossils) for behavior but we can infer some things from the fossils
B) extinct aquatic insect larva had movable gill plates. if retained in adults, they could work as sails
C) stoneflies have species that sail with six feet on water, partially fly (hind 2 feet on water, wings beating) and fly. Fossil stoneflies have weaker and less complex wings than modern forms
[Fossil evidence]
Arboreal birds
first birds climb trees, glide and land on trunks of other trees.
[Fossil evidence]
Cursorial (walking) / groundup
first birds walked on hind legs as many dinos did. insect chasing may have led to jumping, gliding, and finally flapping flight
[Fossil evidence]
combination (running and flying - birds)
if first birds muscles were reptilian in nature it could have used its running ability and limited wing muscles to fly from ground
human bipedalism
walking on 2 feet without use of knuckles
- old tracks suggest prehumans were bipedal but curved toe and finger bones suggest they also lived in trees
preexisting traits
existing characteristics that provide information
pre-existing bias
sensory exploitation hypothesis says existing sensory prefernces may cause an animal to be pre-disposed to react to particular stimuli that can then develop into signals
panda principle (gould) the principle of imperfection (darwin)
evolution starts from where you are. the panda’s thumb is a modified wrist bone
raven yelling hypothesis
A) attracts larger…
B) attracts others…
C) interlopers…
A) attracts larger predator to open skin of dead animal (problem: but they yell at opened animals)
B) attracts others to dilute predator risk (problem: but one or 2 feeding birds never yell)
C) interlopers on a pairs’ territory attract others to overcome pairs’ defenses (seems correct because only nonresidents in groups greater than 2 yell)
production cost
energy needed to produce signal-colored feathers/size
maintenance cost
cost to maintain signal - elicited aggression
multi modal signals
what signals convey similar information?
- get message out better, but are more costly
- redundant signals convey similar information
- multiple signals may each provide different information
signaling
A) benefits
B) costs
A) avoid aggressors, dilution effect, attract mate or parent
B) illegitimate/eavesdropping receivers, predators detect signals
receiving
A) benefits
B) costs
A) find food, detect predators, find lost young
B) illegitimate/deceitful senders - predators mimic signals
honest communication
in frogs - loud deep lower frequency voice is hard to mimic and usually done by large males
