Midterm 1 Flashcards
Ethogram
formal description or inventory of an animal behaviours
Measures frequency, duration, rate and intensity (total time & relative frequency of a behaviour)
Often compare healthy and captivity induced behaviour
3 R’s
Reduction – limiting number of animals used, open access to research to avoid redundancy
Refinement – improving protocols to reduce stress & pain
Replacement – use other options than live animals, less invasive techniques?
Tinbergens 4 levels of analysis
Ultimate causes:
• Phylogeny – evolutionary origins, has it evolved?
• Function – effects on reproductive success, what is its current function?
Proximate causes:
• Development – genes/environment, how does it develop?
• Causation – stimuli/hormones, what immediately causes it?
Ultimate Causes
Phylogeny – evolutionary origins, has it evolved?
Function – effects on reproductive success, what is its current function?
Proximate Causes
Development – genes/environment, how does it develop?
Causation – stimuli/hormones, what immediately causes it?
Plesiomorphic
(ancestral) traits – found in a common ancestor of 2 or more species
Apomorphic
(derived) traits – found in a more recently evolved species (not present in common ancestor)
Homology
trait shared by 2+ species due to shared ancestor (plesiomorphic)
Homoplasy
traits shared by 2+ species due to natural selection acting independently on each species (apomorphic)
Behaviourism
comparative studies of observable behaviour only Proximate causes (development – learning, mechanism/causation – stimuli)
Comparative biology
how biological process (including behaviour) have gradually evolved
Cognitive ethology/Neuroethology
natural selection on mental processes/cognition
Behavioural ecology
ecology/evolution of behaviour and its fitness consequences
Lamarkian Evolution
transmutation of species
• Due to use vs disuse (teleological explanation of traits)
• Acquired traits were heritable (transgenerational epigenetic inheritance)
Darwin’s dangerous idea
Theory of natural selection – nature selects the most stable and successful forms
(darwinian evolution)
3 conditions for natural selection
- Variation
- Heredity
- Differences in reproductive success (fitness)
positive frequency-dependent selection
the fitness of a trait increases as it becomes more common in a population.
adaptation
A heritable trait that enhances fitness
• an evolutionary process that results in a population of individuals with traits best suited to the current environment.
fitness
survivorship and reproductions
• Measured in offspring’s offspring
Pleiotrophy
effect of one gene on several different phenotypic traits
Panglossian Paradigm
extreme adaptationist standpoint
• traits and structures explained as optimally designed by natural selection
Exaptations
trait previously shaped by natural selection co-opted for a new use
Kin selection
type of natural selection
individuals increase their fitness by cooperating with close relatives
sexual selection
natural selection acting on heritable traits affecting reproduction