BIOL 3700 Final Short Answer
Describe 2 of Emlen's predictions from the Evolutionary Theory of Family. For each, explain the prediction and describe an example of an animal species' behavior that supports the prediction.
-"family groupings are unstable and will disintegrate when acceptable reproductive opportunities arise elsewhere:" if individuals can increase inclusive fitness by separating from the family unit; otherwise, they'll stay; seen in superb fairy wrens where males will stay to help the parents raise siblings, but 31/32 dispersed with breeding opportunities opened up elsewhere) -"families with quality resources are more stable that those with low quality resources and rich areas support dynasties (same lineage through generations):" individual stays with sufficient resources to mate and provide for their own offspring; seen in woodpeckers, which will stay in high abundances of storage holes but leave otherwise
Define animal culture and describe "dolphin culture." Describe the two major types of culture and how our understanding of those types of animal cultures is important to the conservation of animals.
-animal culture: learning through socially transmitted behaviors rather than through genetics -dophins have very shared behaviors and are good at observing and imitating vocal and motor skills; strong parent-offspring bonds -vertical transmission: between generations (mother teaches daughter to forage) -horizontal transmission: within generations (guppies grouped by age and learn to forage together) -animals may not be fit to relocate to contradictory culture or be released from captivity
Define bourgeois and antibourgeois strategies. Provide an adaptive explanation for how the antibourgeois strategy could evolve and describe any evidence that it exists in a natural animal population.
-bourgeois: defend territory held and challenge territory not held -antibourgeois: flee when challenged and invade elsewhere -explanation: cost of fighting is greater than the cost of invading elsewhere; movement isn't dangerous; fighting is dangerous -Mexican spiders
List the four classes of evolutionary models of female mate choice. Describe 2 of these models and an example of how each have been tested in a particular animal species.
-classes direct benefits, good genes, runaway selection, sensory exploitation -direct benefits: female picks a male with a nuptial gift such that she receives a benefit (nutrients/energy) immediately; better gifts correspond with longer matings and increased sperm transfer; seen in scorpion flies -good genes: female picks a male with traits best adapted to the environment; offspring will survive better, so her fitness increases; seen in pronghorn antelopes where it is based on the male's ability to defend a harem
Define cooperative signaling and honest signaling. Describe the argument that most signaling is not cooperative, and how honest signals could evolve through manipulative communication. Descrie an exanmple of an honest signal.
-cooperative: mutually beneficial between organisms -honest: signals sent are very difficult to fake -communication is generally the sender trying to manipulate the receiver (generally exaggerated and not favored) -honesty evolves when the signal is extremely costly or hard to send, receivers can evolve to detect fake signals -cardinals and red color (costly in terms of energy -toads: large ones have deeper croaks; females don't hear small croaks above frequency
Describe the role of copying, experience, and canalization in the development of bird songs. Describe the two hypotheses for the adaptiveness of song learning in birds.
-copying: imitation/mimicry to achieve the same song -experience: birds can only learn after hearing another; they may develop abnormal songs as a result of isolation -canalization: birds only copy songs that fit species-specific requirements -Repertoire hypothesis: birds learn to build their repertoire to help with sexual selection (larger repertoires are preferred by females) -Sharing hypothesis: social context advantage gives birds songs to share with relatives/the group
Describe the hypothesis about when natural selection favors learning over an instinctual response. What assumptions are essential for natural selection to favor learning in some situations and not in others? Describe the environments/contexts in which learning is probably not adaptive/is adaptive. What is the hypothesized relationship between a parent's environment and their offspring's environment and the adaptive value of learning?
-cost-benefit perspective model: instinct/learning selected based on net benefit from choosing either -assumptions: learning is costly and has a genetic basis -not adaptive: constant or unpredictable environment -adaptive: moderately unstable environment -instinct is favored with low lifetime and parental stability, high lifetime and parental stability, and low lifetime and high parental stability -learning is favored with high lifetime predictability and low parental stability
Define monogamy and discuss whether it is rare of common among animals. Describe how common monogamy is among different animal groups 9birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, insects).
-definition: a mating system with a single male and female for one mating season (serial) or longer -rare in mammals and large diurnal species; common with small, diurnal, territorial animals; rodents, birds (extra pair copulations) -prairie voles, vultures, penguins, hornbills, red-backed salamanders, cleaner gobbles, Azara's night monkeys; few monkeys, fish, reptiles, and amphibians -present when young are vulnerable, populations are small or dispersed, or when the male must care for the offspring for it to survive
Define a linear dominance hierarchy. Discuss the proximate relationships between hormones, dominance, and subordination in animal groups.
-definition: animal social structure with linear ranking; each is dominant over those below it; formed aggressively -dominant: greater androgens (such as testosterone) -subordinate: greater glucocorticoid stress hormones -dominant individuals access more food, mates, and safer territory
Discuss two ways in which the concept of adaptive individual differences and personalities can improve understanding of human behavior or benefit human societies
-definition: complex, evolved mechanisms with features designed to solve specific problems; maladaptive when mechanism functions wrong or doesn't fit new environment; differences come from different experiences/calibrations -infant-mom attachment: attachment increase the child survival (relies on mom); leads to the child still wanting to develop attachments in the future since it was successful earlier in life; looks for protection, support, and reassurance (possibly unstable relationships) -initial niche exploitation: mold to extract resources from first environment; methods stick with people throughout life; first-borns are associated with authoritative figures (exposed to parents only) while second-borns gain more by overthrowing family order and are more rebellious and open to new experiences but less conscientious
Define receiver biases and sensory exploitation. Describe the hypothesize role of receiver biases and sensory exploitation in (1) the evolution of communication signals, and (2) the evolution of sex differences via sexual selection.
-definition: pre-existing preference toward certain stimulus not involved in shaping the response (incidental) -exploitation: males evolve traits to exploit female biases 1. males send signals to female receivers and may fake a signal to get a mate. Salamanders produce higher quality feces since females use feces as habitat quality detection. 2. males become brightly-colored to mimc food item color; strong bias in females, so it's very attractive
Describe unihemispheric sleep. Describe the groups of animals in which it is known to occur. Describe the proposed adaptive value of unihemispheric sleep.
-definition: sleeping with half of the brain asleep and the other half awake in a low-wave frequency; usually keep the corresponding eye open -seen in birds, fish, sharks, and aquatic mammals -antipredator: birds on periphery of the group are more exposed -aquatic mammals can surface to breathe while sleeping -sharks can continuously move and push water through their gills
Define and describe the concept of animal personality and discuss what the terms shyness and boldness refer to in the context of animal personalities. Define the concept of a behavioral syndrome and discuss its relationship to our understanding of animal personalities.
-definition: sum of physical, mental, emotional, & social characteristics that form an organized pattern of behavior -shy: reluctance to take risks/engage in unfamiliar activity; bold: tendency to take risks and engage in unfamiliar situations -behavioral syndrome: a suite of correlated behaviors reflecting between-individual behavioral consistency in two or more situations; explains positive associations between characteristics and why maladaptive traits in an isolated context persist (they're adaptive elsewhere); shows why the shy-bold continuum stays (because both have benefits in different contexts)
Define and describe domestication. Describe the difference and relationship between "domesticated" and "tamed" or "habituated." Describe the concept of self-domestication and evidence for it in one non-human species. Describe the hypothesized role between domestication/self-domestication and other behavioral or physical traits.
-definition: symbiotic relationship with humans; adaptation to a captive environment because of genetic change and experience -taming: experiential, learning; habituation: decreased fear of humans via exposure; domestication: evolutionary, intentional breeding for specific traits -self-domestication is domestication without intentional breeding by humans; using new niches because of natural selection; example: bonobos are less aggressive than their chimpanzee relatives, more tolerant, covered, play, sociosexual behaviors with other dyads, have more cortisol before feeding competition than chimps which have increased testosterone -traits include less aggression, psychological development delay, adult play, juvenile brain, pigment reduction (black and white), less predatory behavior, small teeth; depends on the selected trait
Describe how a neuron works and describe how a system of neurons can regulate whether an organism responds to a stimulus and how strong that response will be.
-dendrites receive a signal, the nuclei processes the signal, the axon transmits the signal to the terminals and synaptic gap -functions like alight switch; mist pass the threshold (all or nothing) -axon thickness, number of fires, and number of neurons that fire increase stimulus strength -cause response at terminal neuron; stimulate muscle to take action or endocrine gland to secrete a hormone
Define an ecological and an evolutionary trap. Describe an example of an evolutionary trap and how it interacts with an ecological trap to affect an animal population.
-ecological: humans alter the environment such that a once reliable cue causes an organism to make a poor habitat choice -evolutionary: ecological (habitat) and life-history choices as a result of a cue disconnect -humans made nest boxes for wood ducks in marshes. They were too easy to find, resulting in egg dumping and suffering reproductive success and populations. The boxes were poor habitats but mimicked normal nests, instigating egg-laying there despite the low success. Thus, it affects both habitat and life-history
What is risk-sensitive foraging? Describe a proximate mechanism controlling "risky" behavior. Why would risky foraging behavior be adaptive? What types of individuals are more likely to exhibit risky foraging behaviors?
-foraging that factors in the risk of obtaining food (such as supply and predators) -mechanism: hunger. It affects food value and variability; starving (each item is worth more, most risky), hungry (items are worth the same, indifferent), and satiated (items are worth less, not risky) -adaptive because starving animals face death either way but may benefit from taking a risk
What is the relationship between brain morphology and spatial learning in voles? Describe the evidence linking sex differences in the brain morphology to whether a species is monogamous.
-hippocampus is larger in voles with spatial skills -polygynous species: males have larger hippo campuses to keep track of their territory and their multiple females (meadow voles) -monogamous species: male and female hippo campuses are equal in size because of one-to-one pairing and thus a single territory to track
What is the hypothesized polarity of the evolution of parental care in fishes? Describe how this hypothesis was tested and the evidence in support of or against it.
-hypothesis: parental care evolves from no care to paternal care to biparental care to maternal care -constructed a phylogenetic tree to analyze fertilization and care of 224 families by tracking evolution -no care is not always followed by paternal care, so the order is inaccurate -there are 2 principle evolutionary routes: (1) female only care via internal fertilization, and (2) male only care via external fertilization
Describe the hypothesized relationship between group living and learning. Describe the evidence in support of this hypothesis and discuss whether that evidence is conclusive.
-individuals in groups should learn faster than isolated individuals because of competition -doves in groups learned to pull a ring for food much faster than isolated doves -differences are more pronounced with high-difficulty tasks -inconclusive: doves were removed from the environment and may have had an unknown advantage or undergone previous learning experiences
Describe the relationship between learning and diet. Describe how food aversions and affinities are formed.
-learning is based on feedback: positive (food considered palatable and is incorporated) and negative (nausea, food is considered unpalatable) -aversions: body gets sick after consumption; discomfort associated with food and smell -affinities: consumption causes recover of similar benefit (replenished nutrient)
Name and describe the theorem used to predict when animals should stay in the same patch to forage or when to move to a new patch. What are the elements and assumptions of this model and what are the predictions of the model if the assumptions are met?
-marginal value theorem: the rate of consumption decreases once a forager enters a patch because less food remains; must factor in the cost of moving to a new patch (energy, time, risk of predatoion) -assumptions: slowing rate of food intake, depletion of patch, cost to get to other patches -predictions: forager stays until food intake rate equals average of all other patches; if patches are farther apart, the individual will stay longer; must stay longer in poor patches to get enough energy to move
Describe the concept of social control in non-human animals. Describe the proposed application of social control to policing in human social groups. Define gossip and its hypothesized role in human social control.
-mechanisms decrease within group selfishness without allowing too much altruism -"sheriffs" increase harmony at their own expense while "freeloaders" and "outlaws" do the opposite -cost of imposing social control is low --> weak selective pressure --> between group selection -honeybees: females don't law their own eggs because they'll be attacked and eggs eaten -humans: easy to cheat (benefit self at the expense of others) but always at the risk of detection; want to criticize other cheaters; policing decreases selfishness and increases the group effort -gossip: self-serving use of language to police self-serving in others (behaviors must be easily detectable); damages the self-server's reputation that they'll want to salvage --> balance behavior to prevent shaming --> gossip dissipates
Describe two reasons why animals migrate and two ways in which humans impact animal migrations. Describe one scientific and one social-political challenge to the conservation of animal migrations.
-migrate to better breeding locations (salmon) or to follow seasonal patterns (birds fit N.A. summer and C.A. winter) -humans destroy habitats (deforestation, pollution) and build barriers (fences, dams) -scientific challenge: understanding demographic connectivity of migration (separating effects) -social-political: animals don't know boundaries but countries do; conservation may not be a priority for all of them
What is a mushroom body? Describe the evidence indicating that this organ is important in honeybee foraging and navigation. Discuss whether our understanding of the neurological basis for navigation and foraging in honeybees has any relevance to our understanding of navigation or foraging in mammals.
-mushroom body: small neuron cluster at the front of some invertebrates' brains (instead of hippocampus) -study found foraging bees have larger bodies, demonstrating neural plasticity as the size differed according to functional role (young age foraging induced growth) -hippocampus grows in mammals exposed to spatial tasks: voles and rats have more dendrites with better navigational skills
Explain theoretically how parent-offspring conflict may differ between monogamous and polyandrous mating systems. Describe evidence that mating systems affect parent-offspring conflict in primates.
-natural selection favors offspring with the greatest inclusive benefits; determined by mating system which determines the degree of relatedness -monogamous siblings: r=0.5; polyandrous: r=0.25 (more related in monogamous, so more individuals benefit more from sibling success; polyandrous siblings more likely to compete and increase parent-offspring conflict) -seen in fetuses grown in monogamous and polyandrous primates; the mother is dominant post-birth while the fetus is dominant in utero (mom can't deprive it of nutrients without self-deprivation); polyandrous fetus was more demanding (faster growth)
Describe the proximate mechanisms for the ontogeny of honeybee foraging.
-neuroethology: increased mushroom body size in foragers to remember spatial info -pre-mRNA is at higher levels in foragers -greater mv1 and manganese transport to the brain -juvenile hormone III: without it, bees forage later with less success; JHIII induces foraging behavior at a young age -octopamine: led to increased flight (only for foraging) and visual, olfactory, and gustatory senses
Define noise. Describe anthropogenic noise pollution. Describe two different ways in which noise pollution affects animals and, for each, describe an example that illustrates that effect.
-noise: intense, widespread pollutant; informationless stimuli -anthropogenic: human-generated noise -excessive sound causes physiological damage and increases stress in rates. Excess signals damaged the brain and caused mitochondrial damage and rupture -artificial light can act as phototaxis and attract or repulse animals (ecological trap) placing them in improper habitats (predation, resources, nest sites, migration)
Describe three types of male morphs of bluegill sunfish and the mating strategy associated with each morph. Describe the connection between body morphology, mating strategy, and reproductive organ morphology, and any evidence of trade-offs to explain the evolution of these alternative male morphs.
-parental: large, light-bodied, yellow-orange breasts, build nests, very territorial, oxygenate eggs, defend the nest -sneakers: smaller, less aggressive, hide near the parental males and swim in to ejaculate in under 10 seconds -satellites: resemble females; trick the parental males into spawning and then release their own sperm -sneakers have the most sperm per ejaculate; parental males have longer-lived sperm and are more likely to fertilize the eggs (quality vs. quantity)
Describe the functional understanding of how predators indirectly affect prey populations through modifications of prey behavior. Define and describe behaviorally-mediated indirect interactions and how marine predators affect the behavior of their prey and the structure of marine communities.
-prey that exhibit anti predator behavior (risk effects) are favored by natural selection; the predator unintentionally selects them -BMH: change in one species' abundance causes behavioral changes in another species that causes a change in a third species -tiger sharks: turtles eaten or more elsewhere, causing an increase in turtle prey where tiger sharks are and a decrease in turtle prey where turtles are (and sharks aren't)
Discuss generally how our understanding of animal behavior can contribute to the management of invasive species. Describe the steps of invasion and illustrate a few behaviors that may be relevant at some key stages along the invasion pathway. Discuss the evidence for behavioral traits in at least two taxa as it relates to invasion success.
-transport: movement beyond native range; example: hiding, foraging, nesting; brown tree snakes invade Guam in military shipments -introduction: release into new region as a result of freedom from transport vector and exploring' example: exploration -establishment: survival and reproduction (positive population growth required); example: aggression to outcompete natives, seen in ants, lizards, crustaceans -spread: spreading out in the region; example: exploration and aggression; western bluebirds correlate aggression and dispersal tendency to expand their ranges by displacing natives -decrease in transport ability, exploration, and aggression causes less invasion success -able to predict invasion success and develop behavior-based strategies
What are the three prerequisite elements for natural selection to occur? Explain each.
-variation: differences between individuals in the phenotype of a given trait -consequences of fitness: must be as a result of the trait; allows the fitter individual to reproduce more and pass on more copies of the trait -heritability: must be able to pass the trait down or inherit it; can be through genes or culture
What are winner and loser effects? What is the proposed proximate mechanism for the loser effect? Is there evidence of the loser effect in nature? Are there always both a winner and a loser effect, or is there evidence that the effects are independent?
-winner: increased probability of winning based on past win(s) -loser: increased probability of losing based on past losses -mechanism: losers have increased stress hormones and decreased testosterone. In winners, these return to normal much faster -blue-footed boobies: subordinate chicks stay subordinate and dominant males stay dominant in other pairings -copperhead snakes: no winner effect, but losers will forfeit in the future after a loss