Natural Selection

5.0(2)
studied byStudied by 52 people
learnLearn
examPractice Test
spaced repetitionSpaced Repetition
heart puzzleMatch
flashcardsFlashcards
Card Sorting

1/47

flashcard set

Earn XP

Description and Tags

Study Analytics
Name
Mastery
Learn
Test
Matching
Spaced

No study sessions yet.

48 Terms

1
New cards
Evolution
Small changes over long periods

Historical phenomenon
2
New cards
Phenotypic
Appearance of the genes
3
New cards
Lamarck's Theory
Theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics

During your life, you experience new changes and then pass it onto your offspring
4
New cards
Example of Lamarck’s Theory
Inheritance of acquired characteristics

Giraffe passed the traits of having long necks because their ancestors kept stretching their neck to eat the leaves to tall trees and grew their neck over time
5
New cards
Natural Selection
The mechanism of evolution, how it happened
6
New cards
Other people who made theories about how evolution works
Erasmus Darwin, Jean Baptistery Lamarck
7
New cards
William Paley
Natural theology
8
New cards
Charles Darwin
Rich guy who when on a long voyage learning about how organisms were different from place to place

Collected a lot of evidence and studied finches
9
New cards
When did Darwin go on the Beagle voyage
1931 - 1936
10
New cards
How long did Darwin take to develop his theory?
1937 - 1959
11
New cards
Alfred Russel Wallace
Sent Darwin a letter that he had the same idea

Wasn’t rich and collected samples of orangutang for museums (by killing them)

Believe life/resources was unlimited at the time
12
New cards
When did Wallace send a letter to Darwin?
1958
13
New cards
Competition
Out compete the others

Since resources are limited, not everyone will have the resources to survive and some will have more than others
14
New cards
Who came up with the idea of Competition?
Malthus (based on the course of human population)
15
New cards
Variation
There were variations between individuals

Such as teeth to eat better fruit to allow more energy for reproduction

Affects ones ability to survive and reproduce
16
New cards
Reproduction
Maximizing reproduction to pass down your genetics
17
New cards
Inheritance
Passing down genetics to offspring
18
New cards
Finches
Studied by Darwin

They have different beak sizes based on their diet
19
New cards
Adaptation
A feature shaped by natural selection, promoting survival and reproduction
20
New cards
Fitness
The relative ability of an organism to survive and transmit its ends to the next generation

Be better than other animals to have success

There is not global fitness, just the local fitness of the area
21
New cards
Direct fitness
Number of your genome copies you pass directly to the next generation

Counting babies
22
New cards
Indirect fitness
Number of your genome copies passed indirectly to the next generation via kin
23
New cards
Inclusive fitness
Number of genome copies that are passed in total to the next generation

Direct + indirect fitness
24
New cards
Inclusive fitness theory (kin selection)
Natural selection favours traits that maximize inclusive fitness

Both the genes are spread through both direct and indirect fitness
25
New cards
Hamilton's Rule
c < b \* r

You are less likely to go out of the way to save someone who isn’t related to you

The more closely related you are, the higher than chance

2 brothers = 8 cousins in terms of genetics

Humans are special as we also help non kin
26
New cards
Typological thinking
Species are unvarying

There was always a dog, wolf, elephant

They just evolved into their best form (ideal types/essences)

No variation
27
New cards
Evolutionary thinking
Variation within species is the essence

Why some primates do certain things, when some are better than others

Individual = samples of population

Based on probabilities, not certainties
28
New cards
Tree thinking (phylogenetic)
Variation between species from LCA

Examine when traits arose and why (what pressures occurred at that time)
29
New cards
What was the massive shit in thinking towards evolution?
Humans are the most evolved species and all species are evolving to be like humans
30
New cards
Not directional
Selection imparts an advantage to certain individuals in a particular environment at the particular moment
31
New cards
Mutations
Drives evolution and creates variation

Is quite rarely and usually doesn’t work
32
New cards
Genetic drift (Neutral Theory of evolution)
Random fluctuations in allele frequencies
33
New cards
Population bottleneck
Contraction of population size due to evironmental events/ecological factors

Finches: Drought, reducing genetic diversity (small beak ones die while bigger beaks lived)
34
New cards
Founder effect
Founding of a new population by a non representative sample

Finches: A group of finches moved to another island, limiting genetics to only the finishes within that group
35
New cards
Incidental by product
Something that is trivially adapted

Bones: Contain calcium for structural integrity thus are white and is not something evolution is selecting for or against
36
New cards
Phenotype
A description of your physical traits

What you see and its behaviour
37
New cards
Genotype
Your habitable genetic identity
38
New cards
Phenotypic plasticity
The ability of one genotype to produce more than on phenotype when exposed to different environments

Milk: Drink more milk = taller, drinking less milk = shorter
39
New cards
Behaviour
How animals interact with the environment and each other

Their response is carried out by musculoskeletal system

Relies on genetics, neurobiology, endocrinology, physiology, evolution and ecology
40
New cards
Fox domestication
Only foxes that reacted nicely to being pet were allowed to breed

After a few generations certain traits such as spotted coats started to show which is also common to other domesticated animals
41
New cards
Pleiotropy
One gene affecting other phenotypic traits
42
New cards
Behavioural ecology
Evolutionary theory applied to behaviour

Same conditions apply

* Competition
* Variation
* Reproduction
* Inheritance
43
New cards
Sociobiology
Applying evolutionary principles, specifically natural selection to behaviour
44
New cards
Tinbergen's 4 Questions and Levels of Analysis
Adaptive value, phylogeny, mechanism, and ontogeny
45
New cards
Adaptive value (function)
How does the behaviour contribute to survival and reproduction (fitness)?
46
New cards
Evolutionary history (phylogeny)
What is the evolutionary history of the behaviour?
47
New cards
Causation (mechanism)
What is the mechanistic basis of the behaviour, including chemical, anatomical and physiological mechanisms?
48
New cards
Development (ontogeny)
How does development of the animal, from zygote to mature individual, influence the behaviour?