DOCSLIB.ORG

1. SCIENCE in CARTOONS. in the Cartoon Futurama, the Crustacean Dr

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1. SCIENCE in CARTOONS. in the Cartoon Futurama, the Crustacean Dr Bio 312, Fall 2018 Exam 2 ( 1 ) Name:____________________ Please write the first letter of your last name in the box; 5 points will be deducted if your name is hard to read or the box does not contain the correct letter. Written answers should be concise and precise; answers typically have short correct answers. Regrade requests cannot be made for exams completed in pencil for any reason. The exam has 100 points total 1. SCIENCE IN CARTOONS. In the cartoon Futurama, the crustacean Dr. Zoidberg travels back to his home planet, Decapod 10, to participate in their mating ritual. The males of his species construct mounds of sand in a line along the beach and decorate them with shells and seaweed. They also adorn themselves. They then perform a dance to attract females, who tour the beach and watch the males dance. Here he is shown with a potential mate evaluating his performance. (a, 4 pts) Name the specific category of sexual selection Dr. Zoidberg’s behavior represents (b, 4 pts) Describe (don't just name the species) the example from class that is most similar to this scenario. (c, 2 pts) Is this typically considered an example of intrasexual or intersexual selection? (circle one) intrasexual intersexual (d, 4 pts) Later in the episode, we find out that Dr. Zoidberg failed to attract a mate. When his friends attempt to comfort him by mentioning that he can try again next year, Dr. Zoidberg explains that his species mates once, and then dies. What is the technical term for this life history strategy? List the technical term and its opposite. Zoidberg's lifestyle: ____________________ The "alternative" lifestyle: ____________________ Bio 312, Fall 2018 Exam 2 ( 2 ) Name:____________________ 2. TRANSMISSION GENETICS. Depicted to the right is a pedigree (family tree) similar to the one in class, representing males (squares) and females (circles). Consider the probabilities that individuals share the same allele on either an autosome or an X chromosome. Complete the empty grids below (similar to the one done in class) by calculating the probability than an allele in the individual listed for each column is also in the individual listed for each row. A B C D (each value is 2 pts) Regular diploid autosome case C B A from to D C B X chromosome case C B A from to D C B Bio 312, Fall 2018 Exam 2 ( 3 ) Name:____________________ 3. REPRODUCTIVE ADAPTATIONS. For each of the two adaptations described below you should describe the fitness advantage it confers to the males (a) or females (b) that exhibit it. Be precise and clear in your description of how individuals with the adaptation benefit in terms of increasing their fitness. (a, 5 pts) The “Coolidge Effect” (named for President Calvin Coolidge) is a behavioral adaptation in which males, who show little willingness to mate with females they have already encountered, exhibit renewed interest in mating when exposed to a novel female. This trait is seen in many species from clades as diverse as fish and mammals. (b, 5 pts) The “Bruce Effect” (named for its discoverer Hilda Bruce) is a physiological adaptation in which females terminate (i.e., miscarry) their pregnancies when exposed to the presence (or scent) of an unfamiliar male. This trait is seen in species as diverse as mice, lions, and geladas. Bio 312, Fall 2018 Exam 2 ( 4 ) Name:____________________ 4. SKUNKS. Last week Hannah Walker defended her Masters thesis here at CSULB. She performed an observational study in which she examined the patterns of black and white coloration on skunk fur (i.e., their pelages) in relation to a variety of factors that may influence them. There can be considerable intra-specific variation in pelages; some examples of individuals from the species Mephitis mephitis are shown to the right. Although she studied several measurements, we will focus on a value called the WI (whiteness index) which was the amount of white fur relative to the length of the skunk. She measured the WI values for skunks found in different museums across the country. She examined several hypotheses, but we will consider just two. ► For each hypothesis you will draw two hypothetical data figures - one supporting the hypothesis and one that does not support the hypothesis. ►For each hypothesis you must label the axes clearly with an appropriate metric (i.e., a value relating to WI) and draw the type of figure requested (i.e., bar chart, XY plot, etc.). Hypothesis 1: Gloger's Rule claims that mammals in more humid areas have darker pelages (most likely due to increased disease resistance via mechanism we don't understand yet). Draw two XY plots: Data that supports on the left and data that would not support on the right. Hypothesis 2: In areas where there are fewer predators the selection for the patterns will be relaxed and the observed pelages will be more variable than in areas with many predators. Draw two bar charts: Data that supports on the left and data that would not support on the right. Bio 312, Fall 2018 Exam 2 ( 5 ) Name:____________________ 5. SEMELPARITY AND ITEROPARITY. Cole (and Charnov and Schaffer) modeled the factors that influence the likelihood for an evolutionary switch between different types of reproductive strategies; a similar approach can model other types of adaptations. (a, 5 pts) Consider a population of wildtype individuals that reproduce over a number of consecutive years and a mutant that causes individuals to produce a third as many offspring, but they are more likely to survive to adulthood. By producing fewer offspring the adults also have a 20% higher probability of surviving each year. What is the lowest juvenile survival probability (Cm) the mutants could have and experience a fitness value equal or higher than the normal wildtype individuals? Express Cm in the form of an equality in terms of bw, Cw and Pw (assuming some don't cancel out) where these terms represent the values in the wildtype individuals and mutants respectively. Show all the steps in your derivation and express your final answer clearly. (b, 5 pts) Consider a different situation in which a population is growing by 10% per season and adults have a 40% chance of surviving each season. If the juvenile survival rate is 20%, what must the birth rate be? (express this as a decimal number to the nearest 0.001). Show all the steps in your derivation and express your final answer clearly Bio 312, Fall 2018 Exam 2 ( 6 ) Name:____________________ FOR THE REMAINING QUESTIONS USE YOUR SCANTRON FORM. ► MULTIPLE CHOICE: (2 pts each). (1) The ultimate (big picture) reason for why organisms die is best described by which of the following? (A) DNA has a finite half-life and degrades which leads to errors in transcription which causes cancer and other problems. (B) Free radicals caused by chemical reactions attack cells and their organelles and result in damage. (C) Lifespan is positively correlated with size and nothing can grow big enough to live forever. (D) Mutations that are beneficial in organisms when they have high reproductive values, but detrimental when they low reproductive value, are advantageous and have been fixed throughout history. (E) Telomeres on the ends of chromosomes are shortened during mitosis and can't be restored; therefore the chromosomes degrade which causes ill health. (2) The black and white coloration of skunks (see question ???) warns preadtors about their noxious spray; such coloring is called which of the following? (A) Advertisement (C) Batesian (E) Mullerian (B) Aposematic (D) Cryptic (3) Meckel's cartilage develops into all of the following structires except which of the following? (A) Articular (C) Incus. (E) Quadrate. (B) Dentary (D) Malleus. (4) Which of the following is the best term to describe a mating system in which one dominant male maintains a group of females? (A) Polyandry (C) Polygyny (E) Protogynous (B) Polygamous (D) Protoandrous (5) Reproductive value is best defined as which of the following? (A) The amount of resources a male is willing to provide to assure a mating. (B) The benefit provided by a new mutation that increases fertility. (C) The expected fitness of a newborn. (D) The expected fitness of an individual of reproductive age. (E) The total expected number of offspring minus the number already born. (6) Cole's model lacked which of the following critical factors that were later incorporated by Charnov and Shaffer to make it more realistic? (A) Adult reproduction (D) Post-reproductive mortality (B) Juvenile mortality (E) Post-reproductive survival (C) Juvenile reproduction (7) Individuals with a higher number of CAG repeats in their Huntington gene appear to have more offspring than those with lower numbers of repeats. These individuals suffer from a neurodegenerative disorder however. Which of the following terms is the best one to use to describe the evolutionary constraint that prevents the evolution of whatever mechanism these individuals use to increase their number of offspring? (A) Conflict (C) Functional (E) Selective (B) Developmental (D) Pleiotropic Bio 312, Fall 2018 Exam 2 ( 7 ) Name:____________________ (8) When considering the overall fitness of a gene, the portion that comes from reproduction by the individual carrying the gene and its relatives is termed ____ fitness. (A) Altruistic (C) Hamiltonian (E) Indirect (B) Direct (D) Inclusive (9) This species concept uses a concept of an ideal organism to which all extant individuals are referred. (A) Biological (C) Nominalist (E) Phylogenetic (B) Essentialist (D) Phenetic (10) Defining members of the same species as individuals inhabiting the same "gene pool" uses which of the following species concepts? (A) Biological (C) Nominalist (E) Phylogenetic (B) Essentialist (D) Phenetic (11) Using this species concept would involve more attention to regions of quantitatively defined intra-population morphological variation than the others.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Pair Bonding: What Mediates Its Formation and Maintenance?
    Pair bonding: what mediates its formation and maintenance? by Amanda M. Dios A Dissertation submitted to Graduate School-Newark Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology written under the direction of Mei-Fang Cheng and approved by ___________________________________ Mei-Fang Cheng ___________________________________ Michael Shifflet ___________________________________ Michael Stephen J. Hanson ___________________________________Shifflet Mauricio Delgado ___________________________________ Mark Hauber Newark, NJ May 2015 Copyright page: © [2015] Amanda Dios ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Pair bonding: what mediates its formation and maintenance? BY: AMANDA DIOS Dissertation Director: Mei Fang Cheng Pair bonding is an exclusive mating relationship associating the memory of a mate with the potential successful completion of a breeding cycle. In evolutionary biology, pair bonding has been studied as a mating strategy and this biological phenomenon has been associated with survival related reproductive behaviors, however, behaviors that function in the formation of bonding and those that are established as a result of bonding are seldom distinguished, making it difficult to assess how pair bonding is represented in the brain. This thesis assesses pair bonding in ring doves, an animal that has a predictable sequence leading to a successful breeding cycle. Through a series of lesion, immunohistochemistry, and behavior studies we sought to understand the processing and execution of this fitness-critical complex behavior, by assessing the neural basis of pair bonding, understanding which behavioral events initiate the formation of the bond and how bonding affects an animal's decisions involving a mate. We found a neuro- marker for pair bonding that is more accurate than current methods of measuring bonding.
    [Show full text]
  • Precopulatory Sexual Selection in the Seed Bug Lygaeus Equestris:A Comparison of Choice and No-Choice Paradigms
    Animal Behaviour 89 (2014) 207e214 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Animal Behaviour journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anbehav Precopulatory sexual selection in the seed bug Lygaeus equestris:a comparison of choice and no-choice paradigms Liam R. Dougherty*, David M. Shuker School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, U.K. article info Mate choice has long been appreciated as a key component of sexual selection. However, how we fi Article history: measure mate choice, both in the eld and in the laboratory, remains problematic. Mating preferences Received 3 August 2013 may be tested using either no-choice or choice tests, but explicit comparisons between these two Initial acceptance 6 September 2013 experimental paradigms remain limited. It has been suggested that preferences may be stronger in Final acceptance 17 December 2013 choice tests as they allow simultaneous comparison, and some studies have indeed found stronger Published online mating preferences in choice tests compared to no-choice tests. Here we explicitly tested the effect of MS. number: 13-00648R experimental choice paradigm on the measurement of sexual selection on male and female morphology in the promiscuous seed bug Lygaeus equestris (Heteroptera, Lygaeidae). We performed mating trials in Keywords: which we varied the amount of choice presented to each sex, giving four choice treatments: no-choice, choice paradigm male choice, female choice and mutual choice. Overall we found evidence for significant positive experimental design directional selection on female body length and stabilizing selection on an overall measure of male body Lygaeidae fi mate choice size. However, we found no signi cant effect of choice paradigm on the patterns of sexual selection for no-choice males or females.
    [Show full text]
  • Intersexual Communication, Male Mate Preference, and Reproductive Energetics of the Polygynous Lizard, Anolis Carolinensis
    INTERSEXUAL COMMUNICATION, MALE MATE PREFERENCE, AND REPRODUCTIVE ENERGETICS OF THE POLYGYNOUS LIZARD, ANOLIS CAROLINENSIS Kimberly S. Orrell Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Biology Thomas A. Jenssen, Chair Justin D. Congdon Jack Cranford Eric P. Smith Jeffrey Walters June 2002 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: behavior, cognition, communication, Coolidge effect, courtship, display behavior, female mimicry, energetics, individual recognition, mate choice, metabolism, reproduction, sexual selection. Copyright 2002, Kimberly S. Orrell MALE MATE PREFERENCE, INTERSEXUAL COMMUNICATION, AND REPRODUCTIVE ENERGETICS OF THE POLYGYNOUS LIZARD, ANOLIS CAROLINENSIS Kimberly S. Orrell ABSTRACT Particularly lacking in the current body of sexual selection literature are studies based on reptile species and intrasexually selected mating systems. Because the life history traits and ecology of reptiles are dramatically different from other animal taxa, current models of sexual selection are insufficient for predicting how sexual selection should influence the behavior and mating systems of lizards. Similarly, intersexually selected mating systems (i.e., based on female choice) are inappropriate predictive models for examining species with intrasexually selected mating systems (i.e., based on consexual contests). I investigated three aspects of Anolis carolinensis behavior and mating system (communication signals, male mate preference, and reproductive energetics) to contribute to a theoretical model for sexual selection based on a lizard with an intrasexually selected, polygynous mating system. In my first study, I quantified the structure and use of signals exchanged by both sexes, compared signal structure and use during heterosexual interactions to that of other social contexts (e.g., male-alone, male-male, female-female), then related signal structure and use to the species mating system.
    [Show full text]
  • The Coolidge Effect, Individual Recognition and Selection For
    ARTICLE IN PRESS Proc. R. Soc. B 1 doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0375 65 2 66 3 67 4 68 5 The Coolidge effect, individual recognition 69 6 70 7 and selection for distinctive cuticular signatures 71 8 72 9 in a burying beetle 73 10 1,* 1,† 1,2 ¨ 1 74 11 Sandra Steiger , Ragna Franz , Anne-Katrin Eggert and Josef K. Muller 75 12 1Department of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Freiburg, 76 13 Hauptstrasse 1, 79104 Freiburg, Germany 77 14 2Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (BEES) Section, Department of Biological Sciences, 78 15 Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790-4120, USA 79 16 80 The ability to recognize individuals is an important aspect of social interactions, but it can also be useful to 17 81 avoid repeated matings with the same individual. The Coolidge effect is the progressive decline in a male’s 18 82 propensity to mate with the same female combined with a heightened sexual interest in new females. 19 83 Although males that recognize previous partners and show a preference for novel females should have a 20 84 selective advantage as they can distribute sperm evenly among the females they encounter, there are few 21 85 invertebrate examples of the Coolidge effect. Here we present evidence for this effect in the burying beetle 22 86 Nicrophorus vespilloides and examine the mechanism underlying the discrimination between familiar and 23 87 novel mates. Burying beetles feed and reproduce on vertebrate carcasses, where they regularly encounter 24 88 conspecifics. Males showed greater sexual interest in novel females (virgin or mated) than in females they 25 89 had inseminated before.
    [Show full text]
  • Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 J
    T The Coolidge Effect reproductive tract. Another proposed adaptive benefit of the Coolidge effect is that it allows Gavin Vance1 and Todd K. Shackelford2 males to copulate with a new female more quickly 1Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA after finishing copulation with a previous female, 2Department of Psychology, Oakland University, as the male does not risk displacing his own Rochester, MI, USA semen from the new female. The Coolidge effect has been observed in a number of species. The first instance of this effect Synonyms was observed in rats (Beach and Jordan 1956) and has been confirmed in more recent research which Male sexual refractory period; Parental invest- showed that, in addition to a shortened refractory ment theory; Sperm competition period, male rats presented with novel sexual stimuli showed increased dopaminergic activity in the nucleus accumbens (Fiorino et al. 1997). Definition This effect has also been observed in non- mammalian species such as fish (Jordan and A phenomenon occurring in the males of some Brooks 2010), invertebrates (Steiger et al. 2008), sexually reproducing species wherein post- and hermaphroditic pond snails adopting the male copulatory sexual arousal may be reignited if the role during copulation (Koene and Ter Maat male is presented with new sexual partners. 2007). The Coolidge effect is a phenomenon observed The Coolidge effect may also extend to differ- in some sexually reproducing animals in which ential sperm allocation. Research has found evi- sexual arousal is reignited by novel sexual stimuli. dence that males of some species, such as The term was first coined by Frank A. Beach European bitterlings, will allocate sperm differen- (Beach and Jordan 1956) and refers to a story tially, such that males will produce higher-quality involving US President Calvin Coolidge and ejaculates during copulation with novel females his wife.
    [Show full text]
  • Frontiers in Zoology Biomed Central
    Frontiers in Zoology BioMed Central Research Open Access No effect of mate novelty on sexual motivation in the freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata Ines K Häderer†, Johanna Werminghausen†, Nico K Michiels, Nadine Timmermeyer and Nils Anthes*† Address: Animal Evolutionary Ecology, Institute for Evolution and Ecology, Eberhard Karls-Universität Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany Email: Ines K Häderer - [email protected]; Johanna Werminghausen - [email protected]; Nico K Michiels - [email protected]; Nadine Timmermeyer - [email protected]; Nils Anthes* - [email protected] * Corresponding author †Equal contributors Published: 12 October 2009 Received: 16 July 2009 Accepted: 12 October 2009 Frontiers in Zoology 2009, 6:23 doi:10.1186/1742-9994-6-23 This article is available from: http://www.frontiersinzoology.com/content/6/1/23 © 2009 Häderer et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: When mating effort (e.g. via ejaculates) is high, males are expected to strategically allocate their resources depending on the expected fitness gains from a given mating opportunity. One mechanism to achieve strategic mating is the Coolidge effect, where male sexual motivation declines across repeated encounters with a familiar partner, but resuscitates when encountering a novel female. Experimental tests of male mate choice via mechanisms such as the Coolidge effect, however, remain scarce. Moreover, it is untested to date whether the Coolidge effect occurs in a sex-specific manner in simultaneous hermaphrodites, where the motivation to mate with a familiar partner may vary with previous mating activity in the male or female role.
    [Show full text]
  • Coolidge Effect in Pond Snails: Male Motivation in a Simultaneous Hermaphrodite Jorismkoene*1 and Andries Ter Maat1,2
    BMC Evolutionary Biology BioMed Central Research article Open Access Coolidge effect in pond snails: male motivation in a simultaneous hermaphrodite JorisMKoene*1 and Andries Ter Maat1,2 Address: 1Department of Animal Ecology, Faculty of Earth & Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands and 2Max-Planck-Institut für Ornithologie, Postfach 1564, 82305 Starnberg, Germany Email: Joris M Koene* - [email protected]; Andries Ter Maat - [email protected] * Corresponding author Published: 6 November 2007 Received: 1 September 2006 Accepted: 6 November 2007 BMC Evolutionary Biology 2007, 7:212 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-7-212 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/7/212 © 2007 Koene and Ter Maat; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background: The simultaneously hermaphroditic pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis, can mate in the male and female role, but within one copulation only one sexual role is performed at a time. Previous work has shown that male motivation is determined by the availability of seminal fluid in the prostate gland, which is detected via a nervous connection by the brain area controlling male behaviour. Based on this knowledge, patterns of sexual role alternations within mating pairs can be explained. Results: The data presented here reveal that these snails can donate and receive sperm several times within 24 hours, and that they have increased mating rates in larger groups (i.e.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolutionary Pyschology 5(2): 275-288
    Evolutionary Psychology www.epjournal.net – 2007. 5(2): 275-288 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Original Article A Common, Conceptual Framework for Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Psychology Donald W. White, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Lawrence M. Dill, Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. E-Mail: [email protected]. (Corresponding author) Charles B. Crawford, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. Abstract: Since evolutionary psychology and behavioral ecology have much in common despite their using different objects for their study, one might expect these disciplines to share a common conceptual framework with associated definitions. Unfortunately, such agreement does not entirely exist. To address the problem, we propose a common, conceptual framework, the Adaptive Behavioral System (ABS), which organizes behavior within an evolutionary framework around an organism’s life history tasks. An ABS includes strategies that use decision rules and employs tactics administered by a hypothesized construct, the Evolved Processing Unit (EPU). The ABS also includes observed or predicted behavior which can be tested experimentally – the ultimate test of construct validity. Use of the proposed framework should help the two disciplines focus on their common, core business of behavior and, ultimately, be to the benefit of both. Keywords: Strategy, Tactics, Decision Rule, Adaptive Behavioral System, Fitness ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Introduction Evolutionary psychology and behavioral ecology share many things – despite their choosing humans or non-humans respectively as the objects for their study (Hutchinson and Gigerenzer, 2005). Both accept the principles that organisms obtain information from their environment and, on the basis of that information and within the limits imposed by their genotypes and other constraints, produce a response (Giske et al., 2003).
    [Show full text]
  • Calvin Coolidge a Tale of Two Coolidges
    Calvin Coolidge A tale of two Coolidges EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Listen to Presidential at http://wapo.st/presidential This transcript was run through an automated transcription service and then lightly edited for clarity. There may be typos or small discrepancies from the podcast audio. LILLIAN CUNNINGHAM: Calvin Coolidge was born on the Fourth of July, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. He died in 1933, just a few years after leaving the presidency. And he's buried on top of a hill in his small hometown near the Green Mountains. His body rests silently beside many others in his family, including his 16-year-old son who died in the White House. WILLIAM JENNEY: This is William Jenney, the regional administrator with the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. And we are standing in front of President Coolidge's gravesite here at the Plymouth Notch cemetery. It is a very simple grave site. It's on a steep hill. This land was too steep to farm, so they put it to another practical use. Notice on the gravestone itself, it says his name with his birth and death dates, but nothing else to indicate anything special other than the presidential seal at the top. Some people are surprised to see such a simple gravesite for a president. But it's very appropriate for him. He did say in his autobiography that, 'We draw our presidents from the people. I came from them. I wished to be one of them again.' LILLIAN CUNNINGHAM: For this episode, I have a special tour guide. So, with me in the studio is Steve Pearlstein.
    [Show full text]
  • Strategic Sperm Allocation and a Coolidge Effect in an Externally Fertilizing Species
    Behavioral Ecology doi:10.1093/beheco/ars138 Advance Access publication 17 September 2012 Original Article Strategic sperm allocation and a Coolidge effect in an externally fertilizing species Rowena Spence,a Martin Reichard,b and Carl Smitha a b School of Biology, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife, KY16 8LB, UK and Institute of Downloaded from Vertebrate Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Květná 8, 603 65 Brno, Czech Republic Because sperm is costly and limiting, males are predicted to allocate sperm differentially across matings, according to the level http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/ of sperm competition, female reproductive quality, and female novelty. We investigated sperm allocation in the European bitter- ling (Rhodeus amarus), an externally fertilizing species of fish that spawns and incubates its eggs in the gills of freshwater mussels. We predicted that males would allocate sperm differentially according to the quality and novelty of mussels. Dominant males responded to rivals by increasing both sperm investment and aggression, whereas subordinates responded chiefly through sperm investment. Dominant males invested more sperm in novel mussels in accordance with predictions for a Coolidge effect, the mussel representing a new fertilization opportunity. However, subordinate males were not influenced by mussel novelty but were responsive to order of mating. Males did not allocate sperm according to mussel quality, suggesting that certainty of pater- nity is a more important variable than offspring survival in shaping bitterling sperm allocation strategies. This study demon- strates strategic ejaculate expenditure in an externally fertilizing species, analogous to that in internal fertilizers, but with sperm investment operating on the level of the site of fertilization rather than the female.
    [Show full text]
  • Odor Communication and Mate Choice in Rodents
    biology Review Odor Communication and Mate Choice in Rodents Michael H. Ferkin Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38017, USA; [email protected] Received: 14 December 2017; Accepted: 22 January 2018; Published: 25 January 2018 Abstract: This paper details how chemical communication is affected by ecological challenges such as finding mates. I list several conditions that affect the decision to attract mates, the decision to respond to the signals of potential mates and how the response depends on context. These mate-choice decisions and their outcomes will depend on the life history constraints placed on individuals such as their fecundity, sex, lifespan, opportunities to mate in the future and age at senescence. Consequently, the sender’s decision to scent mark or self-groom as well as the receiver’s choice of response represents a tradeoff between the current costs of the participant’s own survival and future reproduction against that of reproducing now. The decision to scent mark and the response to the scent mark of opposite-sex conspecifics should maximize the fitness of the participants in that context. Keywords: life history strategies; mate choice; odor communication; over-marks; scent marks; rodents 1. Introduction and Overview Identification of suitable mates is probably a universal need for all species that reproduce sexually. Chemical signals often provide crucial information about the sex and reproductive condition of conspecifics. In many species of terrestrial mammals, individuals are more attracted to odors of sexually receptive, opposite-sex conspecific than those of same-sex conspecifics [1,2]. Often, males are not attracted to females that are not sexually receptive [3,4].
    [Show full text]
  • Comparative Psychology (PSYO 6160)
    Topics in Behavioural Biology (NESC and PSYO 4160) & Comparative Psychology (PSYO 6160) Winter term 2021 Lectures: Online, synchronous, using Microsoft Teams, Tuesdays, 14:30 to 16:30 (Halifax time). Instructor: Instructor Office # Office hours email† Phone # Dr. Simon LSC by appointment: Zoom or [email protected] 902–494– Gadbois 3326 Teams 8848 † e-mail communications: When sending an email to Dr. Gadbois please add “4160” or "6160” to the subject line. Course Description and Course Prerequisites For undergraduate students: PSYO/NESC 4160 Topics in Behavioural Biology CREDIT HOURS: 3 SIGNATURE REQUIRED CROSSLISTED: NESC 4160.03 and PSYO 4160.03 FORMATS: Seminar For graduate students: PSYO 6160 Comparative psychology CREDIT HOURS: 3 FORMAT: Seminar Course Objectives/Learning Outcomes The seminar will focus on topics and research in fundamental and applied animal behaviour relating mostly (but not exclusively) to conceptual breakthroughs and new trends in both behavioural biology (sensory ecology, cognitive ecology/ethology, neuroecology/neuroethology, socioecology, etc.) and comparative psychology (animal psychophysics, animal cognition with the exception of animal learning, etc.). For students (most likely undergraduate students) that took “Advanced Animal Behaviour” (PSYO/NESC 3162) with Dr. Gadbois, you can consider this class a natural follow-up to that course, but it also goes beyond the focus of 3162 (social behaviour and communication). The topics will flexible and adapted to the interests of the class. Topics will be chosen by the students from the following list: 1. The science of animal domestication: Physiological, behavioural and psychological changes. 2. Biological clocks: Circannual patterns and/or Zeitgebers 3. Eusociality (in mammals, insects, etc.) 4.
    [Show full text]