BIOL 2003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Eusociality, Inclusive Fitness, Fixed Action Pattern
Document Summary
Explain proximate and ultimate causes of behavior and how these represent complimentary ways of understanding the behavior of organisms. Understand how behavior is shaped by environmental variability and predictability. That is, many behaviors represent evolutionary adaptations to a variable or unpredictable environment. Use examples to illustrate. (we will talk about this in class. Your text does not focus on these points but you can start to think about this as your read the chapter. ) Describe how foraging decisions maximize energy gain and minimize costs. identify the factors that influence mating behavior at both the proximate and ultimate levels. Explain how and why animals make decisions about where to live (habitat selection), using migration as an example. Describe the various ways in which animals communicate and how communication is shaped by evolutionary mechanisms. Explain why altruism is apparently paradoxical and describe the leading hypotheses used to understand the evolution of such behavior. Important figures: 53. 2, 53. 4, 53. 6, 53. 7, 53. 10, 53. 12, 53. 15.
