Evolution Flashcards
adaptation
biological traits that help an individual to survive and reproduce
human eye
allows you to recognize and respond to the things around young
raccoons
primarily nocturnal and have good night vision and their front paws are very sensitive to help them detect food vs nonfood
bats
can navigate at night with echolocation
adaptive functions
refers to mental activity, movement control, attraction to certain stimuli, language, etc.
3 components of natural selection
individual differences
differential reproduction
heritability
Natural Selection
- differential survival and reproduction of organisms as a result of the heritable differences between them
- Darwin
_____ traits are passed down to offspring
favourable
stabilizing selection
selection against any sort of trait that is dissimilar from species typical adaptive design
darwins finches
rapid evolutionary change, natural selection over a generation causes change in beak size to adapt to food availability
fitness
one’s ability to reproduce and leave copies of their genes in subsequent generations
sexual selection
type of natural selection that selects for traits that will increase likelihood of reproducing
peacock
- female choice
- males have tail
- females use judge and select a mate
- energy expensive to produce
- increases risk of dying
- females discriminate between males based on their tail symmetry and number of eye spots
deer
- success in combat
- males use antlers to fight, winner of fight mates with a harem of females
signs of sexually selected traits
- differs between sexes
- specific to breeding season
mate choice preferences
females are attracted to males whose traits convey that their offspring will be strong and healthy
species specific behaviour
- physical form
- habits
- group size
- social systems
selectively breeding animals
keep animals in captivity to breed them and pass on specific behaviours
honey bees
- don’t have reproductive organs
- die defending colony
- only queen bee reproduces
ground squirrels
- individuals often warn others of predators by drawing attention to themselves
selfish gene
natural selection will favour gene complexes that best serve their own interest
4 types of social behaviour
- cooperation (+’ve actor, +’ve recipient)
- alturism (-‘ve actor, +’ve recipient)
- selfish(+’ve actor, -‘ve recipient)
- spite (-‘ ve actor, -‘ve recipient)
alturism
practice of helping others to survive and reproduce at a cost of yourself
lemmings
altruistic, commit suicide when group too large
direct fitness
individual genetic contribution from personal reproduction
indirect fitness
individuals genetic contribution through the reproduction of close genetic relatives
inclusive fitness
direct + indirect fitness
Hamilton’s rule
rB>C
parent
0.5
sibling
0.5
0.5 sibling
0.25
aunt / uncle
0.25
cousin
0.125
abuse
genetic relatives are less likely to be victims
alarm calls
- female belding ground squirrels
- altruistic warning
direct reciprocity
help each other
both benefit
indirect reciprocity
individuals who help others who have helped others
phenotypic matching
an evaluation of the relatedness between individuals based on an assessment of their phenotypic similarities
