Conceptual questions and answers Quiz 1

How does the lecture define evolution, and why is the word “population” important?

Evolution is genetic change in a population from one generation to the next. An individual’s genes do not evolve during its lifetime

• for context: A population is a group of individuals of the same species living in the same general area and capable of interacting or reproducing with each other.

  • Theres levels to this: individual → population → species → community → ecosystem

• to see noticeable evolution in humans takes a long time, though, because we are big organisms

How are natural selection and genetic drift different?

• Natural selection is non-random because traits affect reproductive success.

• Genetic drift is random because allele frequencies change through chance sampling events, regardless of whether an allele is beneficial

Why can gene flow limit local adaptation?

Gene flow introduces alleles from other populations. This can prevent a population from becoming strongly specialized to its local environment by making populations more genetically similar

Why does a genetic basis for behavior not mean that the behavior is genetically determined?

Evolution requires some heritable variation, but the expression of behavior can still depend heavily on development, environment, learning, social experience, and plasticity.

How are genotype and phenotype related?

Genotype supplies genetic information, but phenotype is the outcome produced when that information interacts with environmental and developmental conditions.

Why is epigenetics relevant to the genotype-phenotype relationship?

Epigenetic processes influence whether genes are activated or silenced without altering their DNA sequences, demonstrating that gene expression depends on developmental and environmental conditions.

Why does high heritability not prove that a trait is fixed or purely genetic?

Heritability describes variation in a specific population under specific environmental conditions. A highly heritable trait can still be affected by environmental change or intervention.

Why do human genetic differences not support discrete biological races?

Human variation is overlapping, frequently shared across populations, and often changes gradually across geography. Social racial boundaries do not correspond to separate genetic subspecies.

• so the idea is just racist.

What is wrong with racial categories as substitues for induvisual genetics

People placed in the same racial category can be genetically different, while people in different categories can share genetic variants. An individual's genotype or specific ancestry is more informative than race.

How can persistent differences between racialized groups exist without being genetically caused?

Racism can create inequitable niches that transmit unequal wealth, institutions, health risks, and opportunities.

Why must primatologists distinguish ecology, phylogeny, and demography?

Similar behavior may result from similar environments, common ancestry, or current population composition. Researchers must compare these explanations instead of automatically attributing behavior to one cause.

What example distinguishes ecological similarity from shared ancestry?

Spider monkeys and chimpanzees have similar flexible grouping patterns despite distant ancestry, suggesting that similar feeding ecology produced the similarity. Closely related species sharing a trait is more consistent with phylogentic inheritance.

Why did primatology move from ethnographic description toward systematic quantitative methods?

Systematic sampling made behavior measurable, reduced observer bias, allowed comparisons across individuals and species, and enabled researchers to test evolutionary hypotheses.

Why does Strier (the guy who made one of the textbooks that was assigned) consider intraspecific variation so important?

Populations of the same species can behave differently because of ecology, demography, learning, and history. Compressing them into one species average can conceal the processes producing behavior.

How does the statement “science is done by people” connect the lecture to Marks and Lala (2 assigned readings)?

Scientists’ assumptions and social environments influence their questions and interpretations. Systematic evidence is essential, but science about race and human differences cannot be separated completely from historical, political, and moral contexts.

What five impediments to countering racist psuedoscience do Lala and colleagues identify?

1. Genetic determinism and essentialism

2. Overly simple ideas about inheritance

3. the naturalistic fallacy and naturalization of group differences

4. failure to teach the relevant science

5. apologism about racist disciplinary histories