BIOL 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Ecological Speciation, Divergent Evolution, Kin Selection

• School: McGill University
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIOL 111
• Professor: Rudiger Krahe

Document Summary

Biol 111 lecture 24 speciation & ecology. Lecture date/time: dec 1st, 2015 / 10:35-11:25 am. Ecology = the study of interactions between organisms and their environment. Behavioural ecology = study of animal behaviour in relation to the environment and each other. Standard prediction of foraging theory: animals should eat foods that maximize their energy intake. Factors to consider: abundance of different prey types, quality of different prey types, catchability of different prey types. Other complications could be competition or predation risk. At the extreme, some individuals help others to reproduce, but do not do so themselves. Prediction: animals preferentially help their kin because doing so increases the reproduction of alleles they both carry ( inclusive fitness ) Helping kin could also help themselves gain experience, they"re punished if they do not help, group selection, reciprocal altruism. The cost for donating is small compared to the benefit of the recipient.