Exam 4: Mammals and Behaviors Flashcards
Serves functions like camouflage, waterproofing, and thermal insulation.
Hair
Produce milk for nourishing offspring.
Mammary glands
specialized ear structure, frequency discrimination, echolocation. large olfactory bulb, jacaobsons organ.
Innovations in hearing & smell
Mammals have distinct teeth and jaw structures adapted to their diets.
Unique dentition & jaws
characteristic where mammals have highly evolved nervous systems and brains.
Large, complex brains
Some mammals, like manatees, have fine hairs that can detect vibrations in air or water.
Finer hairs as mechanoreceptors
Certain mammals can compress their keratinized hairs to form horns.
Keratinized hairs for making horns
the first amniotes to diversify into terrestrial habitats (having a skull with a single pair of temporal openings)
Synapsids
extinct amniotes, from the permian to triassic periods from which mammals evolved
Therapsids
The earliest herbivore synapsids.
Pelycosaurs
mammal like carnivorous synapsids of the upper permian and triassic periods
Cynodonts
A geological epoch characterized by the reign of megafauna, which disappeared following the Ice Age.
The Pleistocene
Mammals have thicker integument composed of thin epidermis and protective hair.
Mammal Integument
hair that primary function is insulation, typically dense and soft
underhairs
used for pigmentation, waterproofing, and general wear and tear, coarse and long
guard hairs
Whiskers that provide tactile sensitivity for nocturnal and burrowing mammals.
Vibrissae
white fur of arctic mammals in winter
Leukemism
keratinized epidermis that don’t shed
Horns
calcified hallow bone that sheds; velvet covers as they grow and removed when growth is complete
antlers
eccrine and apocrine
types of sweat glands
secrete watery fluid for evaporative cooling, ex: foot pads of most mammals
eccrine glands
secrete milky/yellowish fluid, forms film on skin. ex: reproduction
apocrine glands
glands secrete oily substance called sebum for lubrication and pliability of skin and hair.
Sebaceous glands
waterproofing and consitioning, maintaining quality of fur, prevents them from wasting energy to retain hair
benefits of sebum
glands that allow for communication within species as warning, territory, or signaling
scent glands
elongated digestive tracts with enlarged cecum
digestive system of herbivores
Short small intestine and colon, small cecum
digestive system of carnivores
Mammals have a plethora of feeding strategies, from opportunistic to highly specialized.
Feeding strategies in mammals
eating fecal pellets to give food 2nd pass through their gut to extract additional nutrients
Coprophagy
Mammals have different types of teeth, including incisors, canines, premolars, and molars, adapted for various functions.
Mammalian Orthodontics
simple crown and sharp edges used for snipping
incisors
long, conical crowns, for piercing
canines
compressed crowns and one or more cusps, for shearing, crushign, or grinding
premolars and molars
teeth differentiated for exapnsive diet
heterodont
two sets of teeth, one deciduous and one permanent
diphyodont
teeth are constantly replaced
polyphyodonty
large canines, premolars and molars are bladelike and used like shears to cut muscle and tendons
Carnivore dentition
versatile dentition, broad round molars
omnivore dentition
absent or reduced canines; broad, ridges, high crowned molars and premolars
Herbivore dentition
The relationship between body weight and consumption prioritizes exposed surface area rather than weight. smaller animals have higher metabolic rates
Size Matters
Mammals will move for food, with terrestrial movement being more energetically expensive than flying or swimming.
Migration
Wildebeest, caribou, sperm whale, african elephant
Examples of migratory animals
collecting and redistributing nutrients, fertilizing landscaprs, displacement of resources
purpose of migration
Mammals exhibit cooperative feeding and hunting behaviors, such as bubble and mud nets.
Feeding Frenzies and Hunting Prowess
Bats, the true flying mammals, are not blind and have adapted ear and nose morphologies.
Chiroptera
egg-laying monotremes, monoestrous, oviparous
Prototherians
marsupials, typically pouches, polyestrous, viviparous
metatherians
placentals, prolonged gestation and lactation
eutherians
hormonally induced pause in development of fertilized egg until environment is desireable
embryonic diapause
born well furred, open eyes, able to run
precocial young
born blind, naked, helpess
altrical young
The process of taming and breeding animals for human use, such as dogs and cats.
Domestication
Certain mammals can be pests, causing damage to food stores and spreading diseases.
Nuisance Mammals
Some mammals have adaptations for aquatic life, such as breath control and dermal ridges.
Aquatic Ape theories
uncontested acces to a foraging area, enhanced attractiveness to females, reduced disease transmission, reduced vulnerability to predators
territory benefits
total area that a mammal transverses in its activites
home range
animals with one cycle per year (foxes, dogs, bats)
monoestrous
having more than one estrous cycle per year (mice, squirrels, and rabbits)
Polyestrous
ultrasonic pulses through mouths or noses, used for hunting and social communication, high frequency, less energy
ecolocation in bats
sonar clicks through phonic lips near blowholes, low frquency, used for hunting and navigation, requires more energy
echolocation in whales
Expands from selfish needs, redistributes nutrients, introduces microorganisms, creates increase in water sources
Benefits of wallowing
The study of animal behavior in natural habitat, identifies and measures behavioral traits, investigates evolutionary histories
Ethology
Behaviors change based on species present or absent in different environments, evolutionary and environmental contexts
Behavioral ecology
Ethological study of social behavior in humans or other animals.
sociobiology
it includes complex human properties like racism, sexism, religion, etc
why not sociology?
Subjective, immediate response excluding historical information, acute physiological response
Proximate causation
Objective, root cause, evolutionary response, bigger picture
Ultimate causation
any activity related to fighting, whether it be aggression, defense, submission, or retreat
Agonistic behavior
Pattern mostly invariable in its performance, performed in orderly, predictable sequence
Stereotypical behavior
Simple stimulus in the environment that triggers a certain innate behavior
Releaser
Entity (sound, shape, color) that triggers a stereotypical behavior pattern
Sign stimulus
Correlated behaviors reflecting between-individual consistency in behavior across multiple situations
Behavioral syndrome
Inherited, pre-programmed behavior, instinctive
Innate behaviors
Correlation between genes and function, programmed circadian rhythms, fixed action patterns, reflexes
Genetic correlation
Habituation, sensitization, operant behavior
Learned behaviors
homosygous recessive alleles allow them to uncap and remove sick dead larvae (usually female worker bees)
hygenic bee
Desensitization, diminished sensitivity to a stimulus
Habituation
Restoring a certain behavior through punishment or reward system
Sensitization
Behavior controlled by consequences, classical conditioning
Operant behavior
Defending a fixed area by excluding intruders of the same or other species
Territoriality
Learned recognition of scents for territorial marking
Scent recognition
Communication through physical touch
Tactile stimulation
Communication through sounds
Vocalizations
True life partnership between mates
Monogamy
Having multiple mates (ex: dogs, red-winged blackbird)
Polygamy
One male with many females (ex: african elephant seals)
Polygyny
One female with many males (ex: galapagos hawk, spotted sandpiper)
Polyandry
males gain access to females indirectly by holding critical resources (owning territory with desirable climate and free of predators, more prey)(Ex:sage grouse)
resource defense polygyny
females cluster and are defendable (females occupy land, males can defend and mate with them relatively easily, harem)(ex: elephant seal)
female defense polygyny
females select mates from clusters of males competing for an opportunity to mate (lek→ communal display ground for males to attract females)(ex: gorillas)
male dominant polygyny
Assisting the survival and reproduction of other individuals who possess the same genes by common descent
Altruistic behavior
Assisting individuals who share common genes, representation in future generations (parental care and sibling cooperation)
Kin selection
Relative number of an individual’s alleles passed to future generations through reproductive success
Inclusive fitness
Performing behaviors to benefit other members of the population, possibly at its own expense (bats sharing blood)
Reciprocal altruism
Reproductive division of labor among members of a species, overlapping generations, nonreproductive individuals help raise younger relatives
Eusociality
an individual adjusts its actions to the presence of others to increase its own reproductive success
Coordinated behavior
an individual performs activities that benefit others because such behavior ultimately benefits that individual’s genetic contributions to future generations (includes cooperative foraging and breeding behaviors)
cooperative behavior
offensive physical action, or threat, to force others to abandon something they own or might attain
aggressive behavior
Behaviors a less-dominant animal exhibits toward a more-dominant animal to prevent being subjected to aggression. (crouching, tucking tail, laying on back, avoiding eye contact)
submissive behavior
A species-typical behavior by which an animal defends itself against the threat of another animal (porcupine turning is back and present quills)
defensive behavior
animal avoiding confrontation (bird leaving in presence of more dominate robin)
dismissive/retreat behavior
mutual understood meaning to establish a dominance hierarchy with the population within a species
ritual threat display
inflicting a stable behavior in a young animal by exposure to a particular stimuli during a critical period in the anima’s development (geese following the first large object they see once being able to walk)
imprinting
migration and navigation, social learning
pros of imprinting
irreversibility, limited learning, vulnerability to manipulation
cons of imprinting
