LIFESCI 3C03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Assortative Mating, Great Tit, Wytham
24 Jan 2017
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Answer is concerned with genetic and developmental mechanisms: adaptive advantage/function: starlings sing to attract mates for breeding, and so singing increases reproductive success of males, evolutionary history/phylogeny: how song evolved in starlings from their avian ancestors. Most primitive living birds make very simple sounds, so it is reasonable to assume that complex songs of starlings and other song birds have evolved from simple ancestral calls. Causal and developmental factors are referred to as proximate because they explain how a given individual comes to behave in a particular way during its lifetime. Factors influencing adaptive advantage and evolution are called ultimate because they explain why and how the individual has evolved the behaviour. Lions lives in prides consisting of between 3-12 adult females, 1-6 adult males and several cubs. Group defends a territory in which it hunts for prey, especially gazelle and zebra. Within a pride, all females are related; all stay there to breed.
