ANTH 311 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Polygynandry, Social System, Monomorphism

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Anthropology
• Course: ANTH 311
• Professor: Dejana Nikitovic

Document Summary

Find enough food for survival and reproduction. Parental investment: any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspri(cid:374)g"s (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ge of sur(cid:448)i(cid:448)al at the (cid:272)ost of the pare(cid:374)t"s a(cid:271)ility to i(cid:374)(cid:448)est i(cid:374) other offspri(cid:374)g. Females always provide lots of care for their young. Males do so in very few species. Females: extended pregnancy, lactation, extra time and energy per infant, relatively small number of surviving infants produced over lifetime, focus on quality (male with best traits, limited to access to energetic resources. Explains existence of features with no obvious survival function (secondary sexual characteristics) that seem maladaptive and sometimes detrimental to survival in terms of natural selection: ex. Peacocks- energy it takes to grow huge tail, stand out to predators, (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t flee as easily. 2 mechanisms that lead to evolution of secondary sexual characteristics: male-male competition (intra-sexual selection, favours traits that give males a reproductive advantage through competition with other males (effective fighters, ex.