EE BIOL 185 Lecture 5: Lecture 3a_Studying Adaptation_SP18
26 Apr 2018
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Objectives: use examples from the literature to explore the study of adaptation, discuss fever and why we get fever in the context of adaptation. Adaptation: introduction: demonstrating adaptation has been a major focus of evolutionary biology since darwin, this requires development of hypotheses and careful testing. A plausible hypothesis is the beginning of a careful study, not the end! To show adaptation: determine function of the trait, show that individuals possessing the trait leave more offspring than those that do not. Show that trait was shaped by natural selection to serve the same primary function that make it beneficial today (b&d] Hypotheses testing: oxpeckers revisited: oxpeckers are birds that are associated with large mammals, often described as a mutualism, birds eat ticks off the mammals (gain nutrients) and the mammals have fewer ticks (reduction in parasite load) No discernable effect of oxpeckers on tick load!
