Evolution I Flashcards
What is an adaptation?
Biological traits that help an individual survive and reproduce in its habitat
Perform specific functions that make an organism better suited for its environment
What adaptations have helped racoons see in the dark?
Front paws became so sensitive that they often don’t require vision to discriminate food items from non-food items in total darkness
Are human eyes an adaptation?
Yes
What classifies as a “higher” mental process?
Selective Attention
Memory Encoding
Memory Retrieval
In what way are cognitive psychologists also adaptationists?
They break down large-scale cognitive processes into adaptive problems or tasks, and then look for adaptations to solve those problems
What are the four basic mechanisms of evolution?
Natural selection
Mutation
Genetic drift
Migration
What is natural selection?
Differential survival and reproduction of organisms as a result of the heritable differences between them
What are the three essential components of natural selection?
1) Variation amongst individuals
2) Differential reproduction success
3) Heritability
What is stabilizing selection?
Selection against any sort of departure from the species-typical adaptive design
Describe the situation with Darwin’s Finches and how it shows natural selection
There was a drought
Only food left were large, hard, tough seeds
Large beak Finches survived whereas small beak Finches died
(When the drought ended, average sized beaks became more frequent again)
What is Darwinian fitness?
Avg reproductive success of a genotype relative to other genotypes
Is natural selection the “survival of the fittest”?
No, natural selection maximizes fitness, which is more about reproductive success than survival
What is evolution?
Change in gene frequencies over generations
What is sexual selection?
The component of natural selection that acts on traits that influence an organism’s ability to obtain a mate
What are the two subtypes of sexual selection? Give examples of each
1) Female choice
2) Success in combat
What are the mate choice preferences of peahens (female peacocks)?
1) Number of eyespots
2) Left-right symmetry of eyespots
What traits do females tend to look out for when choosing a mate?
- Best resistance to disease
- Best genes for being healthy
How are Sanderling sandpipers different from semipalmated or Dunlin sandpipers?
Foraging behaviour
- race out after receding waves
- furiously peck at tiny insects on sand
- race back to shore in front of next wave
What classifies as species-typical behaviour?
- Physical form (topography) of the way an animal moves
(ex. do they hop?) - Habitat preference (where they go, what they eat, how they pursue and capture it)
- Group size (do they travel in flocks, etc.)
- Social system (do they mate monogamously, etc.)
What are selection experiments/behavioural genetics studies used for?
A way to confirm that behaviour evolves
What are selection experiments/behavioural genetics studies?
Selectively breeding those with extreme traits (i.e. most or least aggressive) and change the animal’s typical behaviour