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Ecology Final

Terms in this set (70)

natural selection
struggle for existence/ differential survival
sexual selection
struggle for mates/ differential reproduction
Mate competition
intrasexual selection
mate choice
intersexual selection
handicap signal
signal is costly to produce and maintain
immunocompetence handicap hypothesis
signals are boosted by testosterone, but testosterone (ultimately) is costly to maintain
Indirect male-male competition
sperm competition, sexual coercion, infanticide
infanticide
accelerates cycling in females, to sire future offspring; associated with polygynous mating systems
infanticide happens when
1. groups have more females than males
2. dominate males reproduce most
3. dominant positions held for short term
great primate dads
red-bellied lemur, owl monkeys, callitrichids (tamarins, marmosets), titi monkeys, siamang, humans
parenting evolves because
maternal relief hypothesis (paternal care enhances offspring success and mother's return to fertility) and infanticide avoidance hypothesis
chacma baboons not likely to evolve BUT
form friendships between males and lactating females
future mating hypothesis
males invest in relationship for future mating (EX: gorillas sire offspring through babysitting)
yellow baboons
fathers protect young in spats
paternal kin recognition
familiarity (treat as kin individuals you have known since birth), age cohorts (similar age), phenotype matching
male-male competition leads to more sexual dimorphism in
multi-level and fission-fusion societies
university of michigan gelada research project
2011-2013 in Simien Mountain National Park in Ethiopia
better gelada males have redder chest patches and lower-frequency calls
leaders, in prime age, with more females, takeover winners;
signals used in mutual assessment: bachelors listen for low quality calls and leaders high quality calls
altruism paradox
If natural selection favors individually advantageous traits, how can we explain the evolution of altruistic behavior?
group selection
being altruistic for the sake of the group (not likely- it pays to cheat!)
kin selection
altruistic to kin to increase inclusive fitness (yes but difficult to measure)
direct fitness
number of offspring you have
indirect fitness
impact an individual has on survival and reproduction of relatives (number of offspring you help your relatives have)
inclusive fitness
direct fitness + indirect fitness
coefficient of relatedness
the probability that two individuals share an allele due to recent common ancestry
Hamilton's rule
a trait will be favored by natural selection if benefits of doing behavior multiplied by relatedness are greater than the costs of doing it

relatedness to recipient x benefit to recipient > cost to self
Cheney and Seyfarth 1980
playback experiment that found mothers recognized distress call of juvenile
reciprocal alturism
altruism in expectation that favor will be repaid (though not always in same currency)

there must be repeated interactions, record of helpers and cheaters, and consequences
How do primates keep track of interactions?
biological market theory- you want something, then trade (does not account for time or social bonds)
attitudinal reciprocity- decisions based on attitude towards others
emotional bookkeeping- based on how you feel about particular individual
why do females get to choose?
fewer chances at offspring and selection will favor females who choose wisely
good traits in male partner
security to mother and infant, current condition, resources, services (parenting/protecting)
indirect benefits
genetic quality and good genes
sexually selected signals
male's condition or genetic quality
cryptic female choice
when female influences the fertilization success of sperm from one male over that of others
exaggerated traits that are signs of female choice
fatter squirrel monkeys, sexual dichromatism (color indicator of testosterone, blood ciriculation, etc) seen in mandrils and rhesus monkeys and macaques
good genes
females select males seen to have a genetic advantage that increases the quality of the offspring
sexy sons
females prefer an arbitrary trait that provides no link to genes or health but her sons will have it and her daughters will have that preference for it
how do you test female choice?
easy in captivity; gave female macaques computer made faces and brown lemurs with test and control to see what preference was
female counterstrategies to sexual coercion and infanticide
form social bonds, conceal ovulation, confuse paternity, bruce effect and vandenburgh effect (accelerate maturation in presence of male) which are both neuroendocrine mechanisms
bruce effect
after male take over, gelada females terminated pregnancies and had lower inter-birth interval so that less susceptible to infanticide; female's subsequent offspring must be less susceptible to infanticide
Gilles de Corbeil said homosexuality was unnatural
bonobo GG rubbing strengthens social bonds, reduces stress, prevents male violence and coercion
same sex behavior evolved through
female mate choice as a way for female sexual autonomy and reduce sexual conflict over fertilization and paternal care-- sex for more than reproduction
absolute brain size
the actual size of the brain; assumed larger brains more intelligent
allometric growth
body size increases, brain becomes absolutely larger but relatively smaller
relative brain size
relative brain to body size that is indicator of intelligence
encephalization quotient
Measure of brain size obtained from the ratio of actual brain size to the expected brain size for an animal of a particular body size
social intelligence hypothesis
positive relationship between social complexity and brain size and between social complexity and socio-cognitive abilities
how do we test social intelligence hypothesis?
through playback experiments with baboons (Schustermann and Kastak 1993) with within family rank reversal and between family rank reversal- they know rank and kinship
social intelligence hypothesis and ecological complexity hypothesis
do not have to be mutually exclusive
cultural intelligence hypothesis
cognition produced by natural selection to solve a specific problem
Clever Monkeys
macaques fish among lizards; diana monkeys and guenons work together; baboons in large groups amidst deer and cheetahs; silver leaf monkeys orange; marmosets and tamarins share child care; white faced capuchins track tides, rub leaves, nut crack
Broca's area
activated when speaking
wernicke's area
involved in language comprehension
temporal lobe
processes grammatical words
prefrontal cortex
speech comprehension, word association, symbolic learning
morphological differences allow
greater range of sound in humans
FOXP2 gene
associated with mimicry in birds and vocal plasticity and language impairments in humans
vervets
infants born with innate ability to communicate vocally but must refine context-appropriate responses through learning
semantics bc different meanings
Campell and Diana monkeys (zuberbuhler 2000)
use syntax, or complex combinations
zipf's law
a negative relationship between word length and frequency use
menzerath's law
longer sequences are made up of shorter constituents
theory of mind
because non-human primates do not know what others know there is no urge to share knowledge
culture
group-typical behavior patterns shared by community that use socially learned and transmitted info
what makes a behavior a cultural pattern?
innovation, diffusion, and social transmission
material culture
tools and tech
puzzle box
brown capuchin monkeys likely to open box as others did before them
blue and red corn
vervet monkeys abandon foraging preferences in favor of group norms
ratchet effect
cumulative culture/ each time idea spreads, culture gets more complex
Virunga
conservation efforts at Virunga national park in Congo during M23 rebellion in 2012 and SOCO efforts to destroy for oil and poaching (800 mountain gorillas left in world)
Rise of the Warrior Apes
largest troop of chimps in Uganda's Kibale National Park in Ngogo; filmed since 1996 (now 204 chimps); over hunting; Lofty alpha through bullying; Bartok alpha through alliances; Hare mourned Ellington; group killed Grapelli except Hare
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