BIOC54H3 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Polygyny Threshold Model, Lek Mating, Scramble Competition
9 May 2012
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Document Summary
Nature or nurture fallacy : no trait is purely genetic. Environmental signals have an influence on all traits. Neither genotype nor environment is more important that the other. Imprinting : a young animal"s early social interactions, usually with its parents, lead to its learning such things as what constituted an appropriate sexual partner. Tits (bt) and great tits (gt) were cross fostered (bts were reared by gts and vice versa), misimprinting occurred differentially. Cross fostered bts almost all mated with gts. But only some of the cross fostered gts mated with bts. Hence mis-imprinting occurred but the extent to which it occurred differed between species. Birds are able to remember where they store seeds- an example of specialized traits in birds. The birds even remember the size of the seeds stored. This is only possible by genes required to construct the learning system and genes that respond to key sensory stimuli in the environment.
