human behaviour and ecology

Question 1

What is assortative mating?

Answer 1

A form of non random mating in which pair bonds are established on the basis of a particular phenotypical trait

Question 2

What is positive assortative mating?

Answer 2

When people choose to mate with those phenotypically similar to themselves

Question 3

What is negative (dis assortative) mating?

Answer 3

When individuals with dissimilar phenotypes or genotypes maye with one another more frequently than expected under random mating

Question 4

What is an altruistic behaviour?

Answer 4

A behaviour that conveys and individual fitness cost to the actor and a fitness benefit to the receiver

Question 5

What is an adaptation?

Answer 5

Traits that offer an advantage in a given environment

Question 6

What are the types of adaptations?

Answer 6

structural
physiological
behavioural

Question 7

What are some examples of species wide adaptations?

Answer 7

Stereoscopic vision, opposable thumb, voice

Question 8

What are some examples of population specific adaptations?

Answer 8

Body shape, lactose tolerance

Question 9

What is acclimation?

Answer 9

Very short term (minutes to hours) response to an environmental stressor

Question 10

What is acclimatisation?

Answer 10

Short term (days to weeks) response to an environmental stressor

Question 11

Genetic adaptation vs. Cultural adaptation

Answer 11

Modification: genetic/evolutionary vs. Behavioural/developmental
Transmission: Vertical (parent to offspring) vs. Vertical and horizontal
Speed: very slow (random mutation) vs rapid (goal directed
Direction: relatively irreversible vs. Reversible

Question 12

What are some similarities between cultural and genetic adaptation?

Answer 12

both provide advantages for a given environment
- both results in changes over many generations

Question 13

Define convergent evolution

Answer 13

The independent evolution of similar traits within a species

Question 14

Define a cline

Answer 14

a measurable gradient in a single characteristic (or biological trait) of a species across its geographical range.

Question 15

Define cultural adaptation

Answer 15

the process of adjusting to a new culture and feeling comfortable within it

Question 16

What is the first law of thermodynamics?

Answer 16

energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another

Question 17

Second law of thermodynamics

Answer 17

posits that the transfer of energy involves some released as heat.

Question 18

What is Leibigs law of the minimum?

Answer 18

the growth of an organism is limited by the most scarce resource, or limiting factor, available at any given time.

Question 19

What is a limiting factor?

Answer 19

a variable or factor that constrains a population’s growth or size

Question 20

What is a regulating factor?

Answer 20

a force that keeps a population of living things in check, preventing it from increasing or decreasing in size over time.

Question 21

What is Bergman’s rule?

Answer 21

in cold climates, large body mass increases the ratio of volume-to-surface area and provides for maximum metabolic heat retention in mammals and birds

Question 22

What is Allen’s rule?

Answer 22

endothermic animals living in colder climates have relatively shorter appendages than do closely related species in warmer climates.

Question 23

Proximate explanations of behaviour

Answer 23

the immediate causes of behavior, and are based on the mechanisms that directly underlie the behavior.

Question 24

Ultimate explanations of behaviour

Answer 24

concerned with the evolutionary benefits of a behavior, and how it has contributed to an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce

Question 25

Female contribution to offspring

Answer 25

Genetic Contribution
Nurturing the Zygote
Gestation and Development
Hormonal Support
Maternal Care and Lactation

Question 26

male contribution to offspring

Answer 26

Genetic Material
Sex Determination
sperm Motility and Fertilisation
Epigenetic Influence
Resource Provision

Question 27

Hamilton’s rule for kin selection

Answer 27

Altruistic behavior is likely to evolve when the benefit to a relative, weighted by how closely related they are, is greater than the cost to the individual doing the helping. In other words, an organism will help a relative if it means that, overall, more of their shared genes have a chance to survive and be passed on.