Week 2 + 3

Question 1

What are Tindeberg’s 4 types of questions?

Answer 1

• mechanistic (proximate)
• developmental (proximate)
• survival/reproductive (ultimate)
• evolutionary (ultimate)

Question 1

What are the requirements for evolution?

Answer 1

1. existence of past behavioural alternatives
2. differences between individuals must be heritable
3. individuals with certain behavioural alternatives have better fitness over those with another
4. offspring of individuals with higher fitness will inherit certain behavioural alternatitives

Question 2

Define group selection

Answer 2

individuals that act selfishly die out due to overexploitation of resources while selfless individuals survive and reproduce, passing on their selfless tendencies

Question 3

What is the difference between direct and indirect fitness?

Answer 3

direct = behaviour affects actor’s reproductive success
indirect = behaviour affects recipient’s reproductive success

Question 4

Define kin selection

Answer 4

behaviours that are selected for because they have a benefit on relatives’ reproduction, indirectly benefitting the actor’s fitness as a result

Question 5

What is the “greenbeard” effect in kin recognition?

Answer 5

having a gene that encodes for a specific phenotype that can be recognized and cause individuals sharing the phenotype to preferentially help them

Question 6

What are some ways individuals can recognize their kin?

Answer 6

• genetic recognition (“greenbeard effect”)
• phenotypic recognition (“armpit effect”)
• familiarity (i.e similar calls from those reared with each other)
• rule of thumb

Question 7

What is the “armpit effect” in kin recognition?

Answer 7

individuals should help others that smell similar to them because they are likely related