Evolution Revision Flashcards
What are factors that initiate behaviour (causation)?
Internal cues (BMR hummingbird), external cues (testes in birds), motivational changes
What are selection pressures that cause causation?
Natural selection (swans landing on motorways) and sexual selection (passes on more desirable traits)
When will an animal override his homeostatic behaviour?
When the sexually selected traits seem more important
What are the different types of learning seen in the natural world?
Process conditioning, insight, social learning
What are the types of special relationships?
Commensalism, mutualism, symbiosis, parasitism
What is commensalism?
Positive/neutral. Animals can live together but dont need to
e.g. whales and barnacles
What is mutualism?
Positive. Not essential but positive. Mongoose and hornbill around foraging areas
What is symbiosis?
Positive. essential for both species
e.g. clown fish and anemone
What is parasitism?
Negative. Evolutionary link between parasite and host- essential for parasite.
What is the optimal foraging behaviour equation?
Profitability hare > (Profitability gazelle – Search energy gazelle)
What is the conflict of interest between sexes?
Females have limited gametes so want the best quality males for maximum quality offspring
What are the types of mating systems?
Monogamy, polygamy, polygynandry, cuckoldry, promiscuous, polyandrous
Example of a promiscuous
Peacock
How does cuckoldry work?
Cuckoos take advantage of the Warblers fixed action pattern to feed young so they lay their offspring in their nest
Example of quantity over quality of offspring
Mallad duck lays 22-25 eggs
Example of quality over quantity of offspring?
Elephant has a 22 month pregnancy
What are some of the types of investment?
Cooperative, abandoned, investment in post-independent
Example of cooperative investment?
Female lions will suckle cubs of other females
What is captive breeding?
Keeping animals healthy in captivity
What is conservation breeding?
Keeping animals healthy and planning to release them
What is positive animal welfare?
The state of the individual as it attempts to cope with its environment
What is appetitive behaviour?
where the root of the behaviour is important
What is consummatory behaviour
the end point. the goal the animal is reaching towards
What is an example of the benefit of friends?
Baboons with stronger friendships live longer
What is social network analysis?
study of social groups as networks of nodes connected by social ties
What are the three types of natural selection?
Stabalising, directional and disruptive
What are the forms of sexual selection?
Intrasexual selection and intersexual selection
What do homologous structures tell us about?
common ancestors
What is epistasis?
How one gene expression is controlled by all other genes around it
What is parsimonious?
Evolution wont make changes unless it has to and therefore the expressions are regulated by genes around them
What is an example of adaptive co-evolution?
Great apes sexual relations and testes size
Example of a non-genetic trait
Macaque monkeys washing potatoes
What is the Wallace line?
tells us about relations between animals in one part of the world to the other
What is phylogeny?
the study of relatedness between species
What are the types of speciation?
allopatric, sympatric, parapatric, peripatric
What is biological species concept?
Exists in a population with other species but will not breed with the other species as the offspring will be infertile
What is heterozygosity?
the possession of two different alleles of a particular gene or genes by an individual.
What is the red queen
Constantly moving to stay in the same place with evolution
Example of kin selection as a social trait
Topi- son of males gets the territory
Example of atruism in social traits?
dolphins helping others in need
Example of MHC governing mate choice
Grey partridges are governed by MHC
What is a state behaviour?
long-term behaviour such as sleeping, wallowing, feeding
What is event behaviour?
Short term behaviour such as charging, ear flapping, social interactions
What is an ethogram?
list of behaviours that we define so we know what we’re recording
What are the different types of behavioural sampling?
- Focal sampling
- Group Scan
- Instantaneous sampling (aka interval)
- Only for state
- Continuous sample
- For state and event
What is an arms race?
A relationship between individuals of a species whereby one is getting benefits, and another is trying to keep up and get the benefits
Example of an arms race?
Stag are fighting because they have invested lots in their weapons (don’t want to use them) but need to use them to back up their phenotypic characteristics to show strength.
Arms race between lion and buffalos as lions eat buffalo but buffalos try to kill baby lions to prevent being eaten by them in later life.
What is polygynandry?
Polygynandry is a mating system in which both males and females have multiple mating partners during a breeding season.
(e.g. dunnock)
example of analogous structure
fins of penguins and fish
good consequences of sexual reproduction
1) Genetic variation; increased heterozygosity.
– Increases genetic of genes to allow for adaptation.
1) Parasites evolve alongside so we need to stay one step ahead.
2) Which allows for coping with future environmental changes.
– Pathogens and diseases may coevolve alongside species
3) Potential to outcome evolving parasites.
– The “Red Queen hypothesis”.
sensory exploitation example
female Physalaemus coloradorum frogs prefer artificial conspecific calls preceded (2) or followed (3) by lowpitched sounds, including the “chucks” of acongeneric species or even white noise. This may occur because, in the wild, females prefer males of the same species that give lowpitched calls (4), indicative of the male’s size, age, and viability
example of arms race
many molluscs, such as Murex snails, have evolved thick shells and spines to avoid being eaten by animals such as crabs and fish. These predators have, in turn, evolved powerful claws and jaws that compensate for the snails’ thick shells and spines.
What is termed ‘wild type’
one allele which is the most important
the proportion of gene copies in a population is called…
allele frequency
what is genotype frequency?
proportion of individuals that have that specific genotype
