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
3 conditions for replicators
- Stability
- Speed (fecundity)
- Accuracy
broad sense heritabiltiy
includes all the genetic effects (variables) on the phenotype
Additive
Dominance
Eipstastic
Additive effects
average effect of individual alleles on phenotype (no interaction with other genes or environment)
narrow sense heritibiltiy
proportion on phenotypic variance that is due solely to additive (A) genetic values (most commonly reported)
how does gene variationn occur
- Crossover of chromosomes in gametes (sex cells)
2. Point Mutations: replication error (rare) longer genetic unit more likely to be altered
Instintual/innate behaviours
- Performed the same way each time
- Fully expressed the first time the are exhibited
- Present in individuals raised in isolation
Reaction norm
range of behaviours expressed by a single phenotype in different environments
sign stimulus
component of the environment that triggers a specific instinctual behaviour
