Introduction

Question 1

Natural Selection (5 major tenets)

Answer 1

Variation: all individuals are born with slight variation
Advantage: some of the characteristics are bad, neutral, or advantageous
Inheritance: advantageous traits are passed to offspring
Selection: those most fit for their environment will survive, others will not
Time: these variations will accrue through many generations

Question 2

Ethology defined

Answer 2

the study of animal behavior?
function and evolution of behavior

Question 3

Tinbergen, Lorenz and von Frisch (why are they notable?)

Answer 3

together won the nobel prize in 1973 (for medicine) for their study of animal behavior, the animal behavior field explodes
Timbergen: instincts with stickleback fish and seagulls (chicks peck specific spot)
Lorenz: instinct/imprinting on geese young
von frisch: honeybees, nectar dance

Question 4

Instinct defined (seagull experiment & stickleback experiment)

Answer 4

a behavior that appears in its full form on its first expression, orten triggered by cue/releaser
- seagull: young peck red spot on mother, mother gives food
- stickleback: males attack anything with red bottom (looks like competitor M)

Question 5

Releaser and supernormal releaser (example)

Answer 5

releaser: stimulus that triggers a fixed action pattern
supernormal releaser: exaggerated stimulus, produces exaggerated response
- e.g. bird’s response to large egg

Question 6

Proximate and ultimate causation

Answer 6

Proximate causation: immediate cause of a behavior (hormones, muscles, nerves)
Ultimate causation: the overarching reason why a behavior is advantageous to an animal (may bestow evolutionary benefit).

Question 7

Fitness

Answer 7

Ability of an animal to survive, mate, pass on genetic information

Question 8

Adaptation

Answer 8

an inherited trait that provides more fitness advantages than competing traits

Question 9

Evolutionary trend

Answer 9

trend involving a trait that undergoes small changes, carried on through many generations, bestows benefit on animal.

Question 10

Adaptive Radiation defined, example & conditions

Answer 10

Group enters good environment (food, shelter, no predators). Group encounters few feeding predators. Founding animal reproduces and radiates into different environments. Eventually, evolve into different species/subspecies that fill different niches.
e.g. galapagos finches