Final Exam Flashcards
What is Communication?
Transfer of information about the signaler or its environment using signals
Why does communication evolve?
Allows individuals to reveal their qualities or motivations to receivers
What is a signal?
A perceptible behavior or trait (physical form) that encodes information
Adaptive trait that increases survival and reproductive success
What is Batesian Mimicry?
Harmless prey resemble dangerous prey to avoid predation
What is a cue?
Structures or behaviors that affect behaviors of other organisms (no evolution)
What enforces honesty in animal signals? (If female house finches prefer redder males, why aren’t all males equally bright red?)
Costs of signals (different individuals pay different effective costs)
What is the Handicap Principle?
Honesty and reliability can be maintained due to the different costs that individuals pay for being manipulative and deceptive
What is the active space of a communication signal?
The volume of medium in which a receiver can detect and recognize a signal
What factors affect a signals active space?
Attenuation (spreading over distance)
Masking (covering up the signal; noise)
Degradation (barriers blocking signal)
What is Stimulus Generalization?
Animals behave similarly to similar patterns, usually color (kiskadees avoided snakes with coloration patterns similar to the poisonous coral snakes)
Sexual selection
Acts on traits that contribute to an individual’s mating success
Sexual Dimorphism
Results from sexual selection acting differently on males and females
Intrasexual Selection
Competition within a sex for mates (usually males)
Intersexual Selection
Mate choice/being choosy (mainly females)
What is Bateman’s Principle?
The sex with a steeper sexual selection gradient will compete to mate, while the other exercises choice
What is Triver’s Parental Investment Hypothesis?
Competition is determined by parental investment. (Most investment is choosy, least investment will compete to mate)
Anisogamy
Differences in parental investment begin with fundamental differences between male and female gametes (sperm is cheap)
Direct Benefits
Female obtains something that increases her own fitness (survival, fecundity)
Indirect Benefits
Increase fitness of female’s offspring
What is Fisherian Runaway Selection and what does it entail?
Females prefer a sexually attractive trait, resulting in “sexy sons”
What is the Sensory Bias Hypothesis to explain the evolution of exaggerated male sexual traits? What does it entail?
Result of selection for a different function of female’s sensory system
Males evolve signals to match sensory system characteristics
Female gets NO BENEFITS
What are the assumptions of the Emlen and Oring model of how mating systems are shaped?
Resource availability
Environmental potential for polygamy (EPP)
Operational sex ratio (OSR)
Monopolizability of mates