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Animal Minds > Evolution and Comparative Method > Flashcards

Evolution and Comparative Method Flashcards

1
Q

How many species are currently on the planet?

A

8.7 million

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2
Q

How many species in all of Earth’s history?

A

1-5 billion

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3
Q

What is evolution?

A

Change in the frequencies of alleles in a population over time

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4
Q

What are alleles?

A

Gene variants

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5
Q

What three things drive evolution?

A

Mutation, natural selection, and drift

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6
Q

What three things do you need for evolution by natural selection?

A

Variation, selection, heritability

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7
Q

Define variation

A

the population contains individuals with different traits

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8
Q

Define selection

A

Individuals with cerain traits have higher chance of reproduction/survival

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9
Q

Define heritability

A

Traits are genetic

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10
Q

What does evolution by natural selection produce?

A

Adaptations

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11
Q

What are adaptations

A

A fit between the organism and its environment

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12
Q

What is genetic drift

A

A variation in the frequency of different genotypes in a small population, resulting from the chance disappearance of particular genes as individuals die or do not reproduce

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13
Q

Describe what mutations are like in reality

A
  • Will immediately disappear from the population if the individual is not viable
  • Some will have very small effects on survival and reproduction. The smallest advantage is important, though and will lead to change.
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14
Q

What is an adaptive trait

A

One that enhances an individual’s chance of success at survival and/or reproduction

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15
Q

What is the reference point for chance of survival/reproduction

A

It is relative to others in the population

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16
Q

What are adaptive explanations?

A

Explaining why an adaption is beneficial for an organisms survival/reproduction

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17
Q

What are the four ways of testing adaptive explanations?

A
  1. Compare existing variation in the population
  2. Treat the behavior as a “design feature”
  3. Create artificial variation in the population
  4. The comparative method
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18
Q

Explain the method of comparing variation in the population

A

Seeing whether or not organisms without a certain adaptation are susceptible to things that hinder their survival and reproduction. If so, what are these things?

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19
Q

What is the disadvantage to the method of comparing variation in the population

A

Difficult to do if natural selection has already eliminated the alternatives

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20
Q

Explain the treat the behavior as a design feature method

A

Imagining you wanted to design an animal that was optimal for surviving and reproducing in its environment given the diseases, predators, etc

21
Q

Explain the method of creating artificial variation in the population

A

Simulating animals that dont have a certain adaptation to test if they would survive and reproduce at a smaller rate

22
Q

What was the adaptive explanation for gulls throwing away their egg shells after their chicks were hatched

A

They used artificial variation in the population. They created artificial nests with eggs in them. Some were positioned near broken eggshells, others had no broken shells nearby.

Predators were much more likely to take eggs from nests with shells nearby than from nests with no shells nearby

23
Q

What type of adaptation is eggshell removal likely to be?

A

Antipredatory adaptation

24
Q

What is antipredatory adaptation

A

Reduces conspicuousness of nest

25
Q

What is the comparative method

A

Testing your hypothesis by comparing the behavior of different species. Finding species that are closely related to the animal, but whose environment differs from the animals’ in one key way. If they dont perform or have the adaptation, this strengthens the case for your adaptive explanation explanation.

26
Q

What text introduced the comparitive method?

A

Harvey and Pagel 1991

27
Q

What does the comparitive method seek to understand

A

The drivers of evolutionary change and the adaptive value of specific traits

28
Q

How does the comparitive method go about understanding the drivers of evolutionary change and the adaptive value of specific traits

A

By relating the degree to which a species displays the trait with the degree to which the hypothesized selection pressure is present

29
Q

What are two important things to keep in mind with the comparative method?

A

The more species you compare, the better
The more you know about how those species are related, the better

30
Q

What is phylogenetics

A

The study of the evolutionary history of species, and their relationships

31
Q

What is phylogeny?

A

A tree that depicts phylogenetic relationships

32
Q

How are phylogenetic trees reconstructed

A

By studying heritable traits and looking for shared characteristics

33
Q

What determines how close different species are on a tree

A

The number of traits the species share, and how similar these traits are

34
Q

What is the but when it comes to shared traits

A

They must be homologous, not analogous

35
Q

Define homologous trait

A

Shared traits because they were inherited from a common ancestor

36
Q

Define analogous trait

A

Traits that have the same function but different origins. Ex: evolved independently/convergently

37
Q

What three things can we use to understand the cognitive capabilities of extinct species?

A

Phylogenetics
Anatomical measurements
Archaeological evidence

38
Q

What can phylogenetics allow for

A

Inference of ancestral mental states

39
Q

Give an example of how anatomical measurements can lead to understanding cognitive capabilities of ancestral species?

A

Cranial capacity -> brain size -> inferred cognitive “sophistication”

40
Q

What can archaeological evidence provide

A

Traits implying the emergence of specific cognitive capacities

41
Q

Insert information from slide 22 and 23

A
42
Q

Give two examples of archaeological evidence in humans

A

Appearance of art - may signal appearance of abstract thinking/language
Appearance of complex stone and tools - may signal appearance of enhanced planning, teaching, communication, cooperation, division of labor, etc

43
Q

Explain monkeys and tools (type monkey, type tool, timeline)

A

Capuchin monkeys in Brazil have been using stone tools for at least 3000 years
Chimpanzees in West Africa have been using stone tools for at least 4300 years

44
Q

What does understanding behavior and cognition require

A

Understanding evolutionary past and present

45
Q

How can behavioral and cognitive adaptations be studied

A

Systematically (“Why does the animal do this?”)

46
Q

What can comparing species provide

A

Insights into selection pressures that promote the evolution of specific traits

47
Q

What are Tinbergen’s 4 questions

A

Mechanism, ontogeny, adaptation, phylogeny

48
Q

What two explanations from Tinbergen’s 4 questions were mostly talked about in this slide deck?

A

The ultimate ones: adaptation and phylogeny

49
Q

What two explanations from Tinbergen’s 4 questions were not really talked about in this slide deck?

A

The proximate ones: mechanism and ontogeny

Animal Minds (17 decks)

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