Define Altruism. Why Is It Difficult to Understand How Altruism Evolved?

Review for Exam 3

Mark’s Section

Know the Optimal Foraging Theroy. Know Reto Zach’s experiment with Northwestern crows. What did they eat? How high did they drop them from? How many times did they drop them? Why not use eat medium whelks? Know the European Starling Experiment. How many should they carry? Why not carry more? (What are the two factors involved?). Know the two balloon activities we did to demonstrate these experiments. What were our results? What do oyster catchers eat? Why that size? In a garden skink, what factors influence optimality? Know Manfred Milinski’s Ideal Free Distribution experiment with fish. Know how Parker and Sutherland’s Competitive Unit Model differs from Milinski’s. Know the preference of mice to cedar and cellulose shavings for bedding? What is the difference between males and females? What are the factors that influence this? What is the vegetation preferences of chipping sparrows? Know the following terms: habitat, patch, Homerange, Territory, and Migration. What is risk-prone and risk-diverse? Under what conditions do Yellow-eyed Junco’s display these different types of behavior? Know the types of territories that are defended by Antlered flies? Side-blotched Lizards? Why do animals migrate? What are the sensory abilities that allow migration? What do the following animals use? Monarch butterflies, Green Sea Turtles, Lazuli Buntings. What is an emlen funnel? Know the following terms: Taxis, Kinesis, Piloting, Compass Orientation, Explain the decision that Red-eyed vireos must make how this decision is based on energy reserves

Know the 3 constraints on adaptive perfection. How is the adaptationist’s approach used to explain mobbing to protect eggs? How is the comparative methods used to explain how mobbing makes sense in birds living in colonies? Know the difference between convergent and divergent evolution. What is a search image? Know how animals avoid predators (camouflage, cryptic coloration, disruptive coloration, countershading, masquerading, being quiet, and the dilution effect). Be sure you know the examples for each above). What are the choices animals can make when encountering predators? Know examples for each. (aposematic coloration, feigning injury, fighting back, mimicry both batesian and mullerian) Know how Thomson’s Gazelle cheetahs, lions, hyenas, and wild African dogs. Know the optimal theory for covey size in bobwhite quail. Know the nesting activity we did with the animals and coffee stirrers. What were each suppose to represent? What was necessary for your children to survive? What was the best strategy to accomplish this goal?

Chapter 2

Define altruism. Why is it difficult to understand how altruism evolved?

We talked about 2 theories to explain altruism. Name the two theories and who proposed each one.

Take the example of lemmings. How would this behavior be interpreted as an example of group selection? And as an example of inclusive fitness?

What did G.C. Williams say about group selection? What happened to this theory as a result of his work?

What is Hamilton's rule? Define B, C and r. Define the following terms: direct fitness, indirect fitness, and inclusive fitness. Kin selection or indirect selection favors altruism because which of the following: raising 2 biological offspring or 3 nieces? Explain your answer.

Define the terms haplodiploid, diploid, gamete and haploid. What is the genetic relatedness of a queen to her daughter? Her son? What is the average genetic relatedness of two sisters with the same parents? What is the average relatedness between a sister and a brother?

Queen Drone

.5 .5

daughter daughter son

.75 .25

Therefore, sisters are more closely related to one another than they would be to their offspring.

Define eusocial. Eusociality evolved in many hymenoptera (ants and bees). There are two theories proposed to explain how this evolved. Name them. Each has a separate prediction and only one is supported by the evidence.

Haplodiploidy prediction: Female workers will favor sisters offspring over brothers. Not supported.

Monogamy prediction: Eusocial insects will have a monogamous ancestor. Supported by phylogeny.

Chapter 3

Define the following: cooperation, postponed cooperation, and reciprocity. How are they different?

What do they have in common?

What are some of the risks of social behavior?

Review the details of lazuli buntings cooperation. How do the bright males benefit? And the brown males?

Review the details of delayed cooperation in long-tailed manakins. Remember, both males have to dance but only one males gets to mate. What is the delayed benefit to the second male?

We talked about reciprocity in primates. What benefit would the groomer get from the individual who was groomed? A second example was in the pied flycatchers. Review the experiment that showed reciprocity in mobbing behavior.

To see some of the complexity of social behavior, we studied the prisoner's dilemma. What happens to the two individuals if they cooperate? If they defect? What is the best option for a single individual?

How do vampire bats help one another? What stops them from cheating?

Cooperation can be costly. Sherman's study of Belding's ground squirrel demonstrated the high cost of alarm calls. Which animals are most likely to call and when? Does this support kin selection?

Male pied kingfishers may help their parents at the nest, help an unrelated pair or do nothing their first year. What happens to their fitness as a result over the first 2 years of life? Is helping a good choice?

Name the eusocial mammal we studied. Describe how the caste system works. How does the queen suppress reproduction in other females. What happens if the queen dies. What was remarkable about the predictions made by R. Alexander about eusocial mammals in the 1970s?

Chapter 14

What did Buss say about characteristics preferred by men in a heterosexual partner? And women? Which characteristics were variable across cultures? How do these ideas relate to fitness of the individual?

Review Trivers and parental investment in humans. How do males maximize their fitness? And females?

Why do humans like symmetrical faces? What is the effect of testosterone exposure on male facial features? What does testosterone do to the immune system? How does female preference change during her reproductive life? Why do females prefer males who are “wealthy”? What is the effect on their fitness of choosing a male who is wealthy?

Define MHC. What is heterozygosity? Why is heterozygosity of the MHC genes good for offspring? Explain the t-shirt sniffing experiment. How does female preference change during her reproductive cycle? What is the hypothesis to explain this change?

What physical characteristics do males prefer in females? What do these characteristics have in common? What cues do females give to their estrogen levels? Review the lap dancing experiment. What explained differences in earnings?

Is polygyny common in humans? Whose fitness benefits by this behavior?

Examine the two graphs we studied of self-reported number of partners wanted and the likelihood of having sex by amount of time known. How do males and females differ? Are these differences explained by evolutionary theory? How do you make sense of infidelity in females? Are their fitness advantages to females?

Finally, how did R. Thornhill propose to apply evolutionary theory to rape? Is there evidence of a fitness benefit?