(ONLY LA) GEE L.1 Dugdale Ecology

Sexual selection, sexual conflict and mating systems

Name Tinbergen’s 4 Q’s about behaviour, name their 2 categories and explain them

• Causation/Mechanisms, Proximate (how) & Contemporary (now), the mechanical reason behind behaviour; what causes this behaviour (e.g. hormones)

• Function/Adaptive value, Ultimate (why) & Contemporary (now), the reason for why the behaviour could take place, what advantage/adaptive value does it provide the individual displaying the behaviour (e.g. a male lion kills cubs that aren’t his so the female lion will be ready to mate and produce his offspring quicker therefore reassuring his genetic material is passed down

• Ontogeny/Development, Proximate (how) & Historical (evolved), what physically has caused the behaviour to develop in an INDIVIDUAL’S lifetime (e.g. a bird learning a song from their parents)

• Phylogeny/Evolution, Ultimate (why) & Historical (evolved), why has this behaviour persisted/changed throughout the evolution of this SPECIES. (e.g. different bird songs having evolved from a common more simple birdsong over time)

Name and explain 3 methods of hypothesis testing

• comparison between individuals within a species: individuals within a species are compared to see what drives behaviour (?)

• experiments: Experiments that vary one factor at a time and have control groups for all variables are used to see what factor influences behaviour

• comparison between different species: Observing why the behaviour of a particular species is different from other species (to find out how differences in behaviour reflect differences in ecology)

Give 3 ways on how to distinguish the difference between adaptation and story-telling, and define the terms.

• story-telling is when we use our own minds to fill in the blanks, to decide the reason why a behaviour or trait has evolved the way it has, while adaptation is the actual course a (behavioural) trait has come to be.

• To distinguish the difference between adaptation and storytelling you must

  • Test multiple alternative hypotheses

  • Identify IF there is cause and effect/correlation & causation

  • Consider IF there even is an adaptive difference, does the trait/behaviour increase fitness or is it simply just how development has occurred to get to the same endpoint (when comparing between different species)

Whys is it important to control for phylogeny (relatedness) when testing hypotheses across species?

It is extremely important to control for phylogeny when testing a hypothesis across species since the species should be independent from on another, close relatedness means that there are/will be great overlaps in the behaviour of the species, they likely underwent similar evolution/development. This means the species are not independent form one another

(they’re too similar, its like you’re testing the same species. WHICH ISNT WHAT U WANT!)

Why does correlation (a clear relationship/association between two things/factors) not equal causation (reason for being/cause)?

A correlation means that two things are correlated, they share a relationship/association, causation means that a change in one variable (cause) will cause a change (effect) in another as well. A relationship between two traits does not mean that they will influence one another!