Lectures 10-18 Flashcards
What did Herbert Spencer believe about evolution?
Rival to Darwin
Organism changes as it interacts with its environment but once the organism reaches an equilibrium, change is no longer necessary
What did Herbert Spencer believe about mother nature?
the act of reproduction limited the development of the female sex
Is it true that females are static?
No, females are active participants and undergo evolutionary changes as do men
What are the findings of the fruit fly experiment?
Females evolve and make choices and have strategies on reproduction and nurturing offspring
What is the female Heron, gulls, eagles strategy?
Lay 2 eggs days apart and commence incubation immediately after first egg is laid
The first chick is older than the second and the parents are able to care for both chicks since they have different ages
What is a then cause of the birds hatching their eggs days apart?
One chick may attack the other and no parent will intervene. Food aggression is the issue
Is there a benefit for mother birds laying their eggs days apart?
Found that mothers with chicks of identical age were twice as likely to lose all their chicks compared to controlled chicks
What species eats their young?
Female wolf spiders, mice
Why will females eat or abandon their young?
- Stress
- Babies aren’t healthy
- Mother is mutant: can’t smell their offspring
What is it called when mothers eat their babies?
Filial Cannibalism
Why is filial cannibalism a viable strategy?
Can coexist with parenting and can help select appropriate parenting behavior that provides the most fitness units
How does female coercion work in bees?
The queen gives off a chemical pheromone to all the female workers
What is the Bruce effect?
When females terminate their young or pregnancy when a new male takes over
What happened when a virgin female rat was injected blood from a mother rat?
When the female was presented with young pups (unrelated) she started to care for them
What do women produce during pregnancy?
Prolactin (increases 40-50%)
How do men testosterone react to women’s pregnancy?
Men have been reported to have lower testosterone (reduced aggression towards baby, more bonding)
How long is the window of infertility?
~14 months so woman can care for baby
What is parent-offspring conflict?
Natural selection favors the selfish offspring, always demanding a little more than the female wants to give
the selfish offspring will have more resources, better health
mother wants to move onto next offspring, offspring does not want her to move on and continues to be nurtured
What are the advantages and costs of parent-offspring conflict
pros:
- fetus gains from mom’s immune system
- mother gains from fetal immune cells
cons:
- some fetuses are aborted, after mom gains her immune boost (choose selfish)
-some mothers can suffer from autoimmune diseases
What is the Maternal Effect?
Mom is giving information to offspring, and this information is not orchestrated from offspring genes
- Maternal effect is not maternal inheritance
- effect can have pros and cons
What is the maternal effect in Fish?
More nutrients in eggs when food is scarce so offspring are fatter
How does the maternal effect work in canaries?
Mothers pass down testosterone in the eggs which causes variation in the group
How does mom’s rank impact female effect?
low ranking baboon mothers were less likely to survive due to harassment than sons (sons will leave)
How is the maternal effect seen in humans?
If a woman is pregnant with limited food during early part of pregnancy, the infant may be born at a (relatively) normal birth weight
Low Calorie breakfasts favor conception of a girl. T or F?
True (girls are low energy sufficient)
How does kinship work in biology?
- Kinship only through blood
- favors the spread of genes that can increase indirect fitness
What is kin selection?
Strategy whereby an organism will help relatives survive and breed (sometimes at their own personal determent)
How do male turkeys help their older brothers mate?
The younger brother will do nothing as the older brother flaunt and struts
How do genes promote altruistic behavior? (Hamilton’s rule/formula)
C < (r)B
B = fitness benefit to recipient
C = fitness cost to actor
r = coefficient of relatedness
Why do female ground squirrels give more alarm calls? (Altruism example)
They are surrounded by kin, females stay in natal area
What are some Eusocial animals?
-Thrips
- Aphids
- Shrimp
What is eusocial?
highly social, residing in large groups or colonies with different roles within the group
What is typically in a eusocial colony?
- reproductive female, surrounded by sterile workers
- sterile workers, care for young, tend colony
- colony with individuals that cooperate in caring for offspring that overlap in generations
Which animals are hymenoptera (eusocial)?
Bees, Wasps, ants
What does a haploid unfertilized egg turn into?
A male
What does a diploid fertilized egg become?
A female
What is the degree of relatedness in sisters?
(nonhuman)
r = 0.75
Why do female workers invest in female workers?
They share more genes and show heightened eusociality
What happens when an old queen dies?
A sister becomes queen, fed royal jelly
What is haploidiploidy?
One sex haploid, other sex diploid
Why doesn’t haploidiploidy explain eusociality?
Not all colonies have sisters with 0.75 relatedness
there are eusocial insects that both sexes diploids (termites)
What mammal is eusocial?
Naked Mole rat
- all males and females are diploid
Do males have paternal parental certainty?
NO
What is a chimera?
animal that has two or more sets of cells that came from genetically distinct cell populations (different zygotes)
What is Woman the Gather idea?
Women were the core food providers and may well have invented the first tools to facilitate the gathering of plants and animal protein
Why did Linda Marie Fedigan disagree with the “Women the Gatherer”?
dismissed as a “feminist” challenge to the male hunting model “Man the hunter”
What is Glynn Isaac’s “Food Sharing Hypothesis”?
There is a sexual division of labor between women and men
How do chimp deal with sexual division of labor?
Both males and females learn to fish, but females spend more time and are better foragers
What is it called when female lions have false cues in pregnancy?
Anovulatory cycle
Why might females hide their signals?
Arms race between the sexes and way to increase fitness
Why is it important babies and todders join play groups?
cut the risks of getting seriously ill since exposed to pathogens
What is it called when women have offspring without men?
Parthenogensis
How the Anglerfish reduce itself to a sperm package (chimerism)?
male attaches to female, parasite, they fuse together and become a hermaphrodite
What were Harvard President Larry Summer’s reason for the gender gap?
- women not interested in making the sacrifices required by high powered jobs
- men have more intrinsic aptitude for high level science
- women may be victims of sexist discrimination
How does Dr. Leonard Sax think we should approach sexes and education?
girls and boys should be taught separately since boys often have difficulty in school
What happen when rat pups are returned to a stressed mother?
She licks them excessively (oxytocin)
What are the main biological differences between men and women?
- Men have larger hearts
- Women have more body fat
- Women have fewer red blood cells
- Women have less type II muscles (fast twitch)
- Women are not able to store as much energy
T or F, as men age testosterone levels decrease
True
What are pheromones?
Substances that are endogenous (produced within the body) from exocrine glands, released through ducts and communicate information between conspecifics often air born
What do pheromones communicate?
sexual attraction, can alter estrous cycle
How are hormones and pheromones different?
Hormones are excreted into the blood stream for a target area within the body
Pheromones released through ducts
How do sex hormones interact with pheromones?
sex hormones can stimulate the production of pheromones
hormones can orchestrate an animal’s response to a pheromone
What is the Testosterone Hormone-Pheromone link? (mice)
There is a male mouse pheromone that causes males to attack one another
there is a female mouse pheromone that inhibits aggression by males
What is a scent?
contains different chemicals (including pheromones)
- scent can include fatty acids, hormones, sweat, old cells, pheromones
reveal apsects of diet, sex, and health
Where are pheromones produced in fish?
Alarm special cells
- released when injured
Where are pheromones produced in insects?
Glandular epidermal cells beneath the cuticle
Where are pheromones released in mammals?
exocrine glands known as apocrine glands (sweat glands)
Where are the pheromone receptors found in insects?
antennae
Where is the pheromone receptor found in amphibians, reptiles, and most mammals?
Vomeronasal organ