First Principles Flashcards
What is the Red Queen hypothesis?
Each evolution advance made by one species in an ecosystem is experienced as a deterioration of the environment by another species.
What is adaptation?
Adaptation is a problem solving process (Dobzhansky, 1974).
Adaptation is a characteristic that evolved to fulfil a particular function (Heyes, 2010).
How does adaptation function in organisms?
Adaptation is a process whereby an organism changes in order to survive in its given environment or a specific new characteristic that enables survival (Fleagle, 1999).
What are Tinbergen’s 4 whys?
All 4 must be answered to fully understand any behaviour.
What is the proximate (mechanistic) question in Tinbergen’s 4 whys?
What motivates an individual to act in a particular way at a particular time?
What is the developmental (ontogenetic) question in Tinbergen’s 4 whys?
Why does an individual behave in a particular way?
What is the phylogenetic (historical) question in Tinbergen’s 4 whys?
Why did the behaviour arise in the first place and follow that evolutionary path?
What is the functional (ultimate) question in Tinbergen’s 4 whys?
Why does the behaviour increase the individual’s ability to survive and reproduce?
