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93 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Some Major Issues in Evolutionary Biology
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• The “species problem” (origin of, etc.)
• Accounting for the diversity of life. • Examining changes in the molecular constitution of genes. • Explaining adaptive complexity. |
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Phylogeny
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the evolutionary development or history of taxonomic groups of organisms
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Taxonomy
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classification of organisms
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Taxon
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a particular class e.g., class, genus, species
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Phylogenetic tree
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an evolutionary “tree” showing
relations among taxa |
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Extant
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currently existing species
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Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection (1859)
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- Individuals within a species differ in their morphology, physiology and
behavior (variation). - Some of this variation is heritable; on average offspring tend to resemble their parents more than other individuals in the population. - Organisms have a huge capacity of increase in numbers; they produce far more offspring than give rise to breeding individuals. There is competition between individuals for scarce resources such as food,water, mates etc. - As a result of this competition, some variants will leave more offspring than others. These will inherit the characteristics of their parents and so evolutionary change will take place via “natural selection.” - As a consequence of natural selection organisms will come to be adapted to their environment. Individuals that are better able to find food, water, mates, avoid predators and so on will have greater representation in future generations. |
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Alternatives to Darwinian evolution
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Scientific creationism; intelligent design ... an early idea
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Parson naturalists
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-religious people who spent years documenting theology, botany, etc...
-John Ray and William Paley |
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Paley’s argument
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-the watchmaker
-Living organisms, Paley argued, are even more complicated than watches, "in a degree which exceeds all computation." How else to account for the often amazing adaptations of animals and plants? Only an intelligent Designer could have created them, just as only an intelligent watchmaker can make a watch |
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Richard Dawkins
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-favored natural selection
-The Blind Watchmaker (1986) |
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Objections to Darwin’s Theory
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• Problems with blending inheritance (F.
Jenkin & “The Paintpot Problem”) • Age of the Earth (Lord Kelvin). • How could the earliest incipient stages of complex structures (e.g., eyes) have had adaptive function? • Incomplete fossil record. |
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George John Romanes
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-Darwin’s protégé
-Animal Intelligence (1882) -Mental Evolution in Animals (1884) -wanted to map out intelligence (simple to complex) -phylogeny-order animals by mental abilities |
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Aristotle
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Scala naturae - “ladder of life”
-ordering of life on complexity |
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Anthropomorphic
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interpretation of behavior is done in perspective of human
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Anthropocentric
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centered around our own species - human development
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Alfred Binet
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(who later invented the intelligence test):
The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms (1889) |
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Francis Darwin
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Charles Darwin’s son Francis Darwin, an eminent
botanist, gave a presidential address on “consciousness in plants” to the British Botanical Association … |
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J. Loeb
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“tropisms” – all behavior
explained by physiochemical reactions to stimuli |
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Lloyd Morgan
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“Morgan’s Canon”
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“Reductionistic approaches”
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gain support and have a big influence on the development of the field of Comparative
Psychology. |
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Alfred Binet
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(who later invented the intelligence test):
The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms (1889) |
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Francis Darwin
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Charles Darwin’s son Francis Darwin, an eminent
botanist, gave a presidential address on “consciousness in plants” to the British Botanical Association … |
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J. Loeb
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“tropisms” – all behavior
explained by physiochemical reactions to stimuli |
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Lloyd Morgan
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“Morgan’s Canon”
• In Animal Intelligence (1882), Romanes described the behavior of a scorpion under extreme stress stinging itself to death, and implied this was analogous to human suicide. • Morgan wrote a response in the journal Nature arguing, on the basis of his experiments, that this behavior was a simple reflex …. not suicide! • (What would constitute evidence for suicide in an arachnid?) |
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“Reductionistic approaches”
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gain support and have a big influence on the development of the field of Comparative
Psychology. |
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Alfred Binet
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(who later invented the intelligence test):
The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms (1889) |
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Francis Darwin
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Charles Darwin’s son Francis Darwin, an eminent
botanist, gave a presidential address on “consciousness in plants” to the British Botanical Association … |
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J. Loeb
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“tropisms” – all behavior
explained by physiochemical reactions to stimuli |
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Lloyd Morgan
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“Morgan’s Canon”
• In Animal Intelligence (1882), Romanes described the behavior of a scorpion under extreme stress stinging itself to death, and implied this was analogous to human suicide. • Morgan wrote a response in the journal Nature arguing, on the basis of his experiments, that this behavior was a simple reflex …. not suicide! • (What would constitute evidence for suicide in an arachnid?) •Habit and Instinct (1896) Morgan’s canon: “… in no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher mental faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of one which stands lower in the psychological scale.” •Animal Behaviour (1900) The “rider”: “To this it may be added – lest the range of the principle be misunderstood – that the canon by no means excludes the interpretation of a particular act as the outcome of the higher mental processes if we already have independent evidence of their occurrence in the agent.” |
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“Reductionistic approaches”
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gain support and have a big influence on the development of the field of Comparative
Psychology. |
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Comparative Psychology :1900 to early 1960’s
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• More careful studies could be done in lab where variables
can be controlled and experiments conducted with rigor. • Learning easily studied in the lab: learning apparatus. • A major focus was the construction of behavioral phylogenies, especially learning. |
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Ways of employing evolutionary theory in the study of behavior
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1. Historical (phylogenetic) approach. Attempts the
reconstruction of behavioral phylogenies. Oldest and least powerful use of evolution to study behavior. Problems: behavior does not fossilize (usually); extant species used to represent ancestral types; uses representative species; separates a trait from others that, together, are the result of evolution to particular habitats; issue of convergent evolution |
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Convergent evolution
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organisms that aren't closely related evolve similar traits as they adapt to similar environments.
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Errors of Comparative Psychology
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1. It is possible to create a simple linear scale of
animal species from unintelligent to intelligent. 2. “Representative” (and convenient) animals can be arranged along the scale. 3. Learning was the key to understanding animal behavior. 4. General laws of behavior can be found to explain the behavior of all species. 5. Genetics was irrelevant to psychology 6. The laboratory was the best place to study animal behavior. |
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Comparative Psychology & Ethology
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geographic location - comparative psych (North America), ethology (Europe)
training - comparative psych (psychology), ethology (zoology) typical subjects - comparative psych (white rat), ethology (birds, insects, fish) emphasis - comparative psych (learning), ethology (instinct) method - comparative psych (lab control of variables), ethology (careful field obs) |
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Historical / phylogenetic method
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-Involves reconstructing the evolutionary history of the
behavior. Attempts to find behavioral “homologies.” -oldest |
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Early Ethologists
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-von Uexkull - concept of the umwelt (surroundings) - systems and responses are very different in different animals
-Lorenz -Tinbergen -von Frisch - bees and color (can't see red, but can see ultraviolet) and dance of bees |
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Early Ethology
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-early goal of ethology was to demonstrate that behavior, like anatomical and physiological traits, had evolved - they stressed the adaptive nature of behavior - emphasis on inherited behavioral response: "instinct"
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Why so much attention to inherited behavior?
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-evolutionary interpretation of behavior
-species studied |
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Ethograms
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-detailed behavioral profiles catalogs - library of behavior of species interested in
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Ethology and Instinct
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-isolation experiments - eg Eibl-Eibsfeld and squirrel study - take animal at birth and rear in lab - feed liquid food - no learning - no digging - instinctive behavior? - test behavior
-Confrontation with Comparative Psychology - eth=environment plays no role, comp=cannot deny role of environment because there was one - eth=not deny poss of environment, but instinctive behavior occurs w/o previous learning or exposure |
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Fixed Action Patterns (FAPs)
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-unit of inherited behavior - restricted set of circumstances - internal state
-releasers=stimulus in environment triggering FAP -innate releasing mechanism (IRM) |
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black box approach
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-can appreciate something as important but can't figure out - label, but figure out later
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"super releasers"
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-bird go to larger egg as opposed to typical sized one
-bigger the egg, larger the young, more likely to survive |
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greylag goose
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-egg retrieval (not reflex) - must go until completion - hormones
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stickleback fish
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-males get red underbelly - aggressive toward other males in territory - red=releaser
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European Robin
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-redish breast feathers
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response to predators by young geese and adults
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-speculate about nature of releaser and there might be something behind it
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Vacuum activities and the hydraulic model
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-sometimes FAPs occur w/o releaser (eg in zoos) why?
-Lorenz proposed hydraulic model of action specific energy |
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Konrad Lorenz
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-related animals to humans - went far in claims
-goose vs humans - organized society and social -no context, identical? |
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Releasers: red spot on gull bill
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-peck red spot
-explore color importance -red=food -does position matter? - if in different spot, less effective pecking - concluded that releasers and the IRM were more complicated... inherited images of correct configuration? - have idea of what should look like when born? |
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J. Hailman (1967)
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-"Ontology of an instinct"
-configuration was NOT important: the dot was equally effective no matter where it was on the model IF it was presented at the same rate of movement -visual system sees red dot and rate appears -feature detectors - fine tuning of nervous system enable detection of stimuli |
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"ontogeny of an instinct"
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-pecking improves with time
-improvement may be due to either maturation of the nervous system or experience (practice) |
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Ethologists concept of instinct
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-FAP (unit of inherited behavior)
-generally requires releaser (signal stimuli) -occurence of FAP leads to a refractory period -thresholds for the response patterns are mostly species specific -learning is not necessary of the occurence of FAP -FAPs are primarily involved w/ behavior patterns that have adaptive functions |
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Scope of Ethology
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-Tinbergen's 4 whys - survival value or function (ultimate) - causation (proximate) - development/ontogeny (proximate) - evolutionary history/phylogeny (ultimate)
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Tinbergen
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-digger wasp - landmark usage - learning
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evaluate approach
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seeks to evaluate a behavior by how it contributes to the fitness of animals performing it. The rationale is that behaviors that have been selected for must be advantageous - what is the nature of that advantage - gulls removal of eggshells - problem of speculation about adaptive significance why flamingos pink? - because of crustaceans they eat
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Importance of testing evaluative hypothesis
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-test competing hypothesis - removal of eggshells - reduces predation
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imprinting
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-form of early learning in which the young animal forms an association or attachment with another animal/object
-early conclusions of Lorenz |
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precocial
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ahead of its time (mobile soon after birth)
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Altricial
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immobile for considerable period of time
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critical period
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time in which experience must occur
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exposure to stimuli before hatching influences imprinting
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-hatching synchrony influenced as well
-auditory systems work in egg before hatching - hear calls of each other and mother - important in synchrony of hatching - if deny auditory contact - hatching not sync - doesn't matter where calls come from - mother or each other |
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experiment about calls
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1 - none
2 - conspecific calls 3 - chicken calls -after hatch, give oppor to go to specific attach 1 - no bias 2 - approach and attach to object producing calls 3 - attach to chicken, but not strong as conspecific |
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Sexual Imprinting
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-zebra finch raised by Bengalese finch - will court bengalese finch - will eventually mate with species
-duck species where only the females incubate eggs - females show innate preference - males prefer mates of their foster mother species - mate with own species |
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Variation in sexual imprinting
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-dimorphic species have differenct resemblance to females
-monomorphic species look alike -males of dimorphic species rely on imprinting to identify sexual partners |
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modifications of early views
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-sexual imprinting and maternal imprinting don't occur at same time in all species
-sensitive period not as restricted as originally thought -imprinting is reversible within the sensitive period especially if initial object is not a conspecific - if does not see member of own species at first, then introduced - goes to species (vice versa) |
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Neuroethology
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-since mid-1960s much research, inspired by the early ethologists, has focused attention on how the nervous system influences animal behavior
-IRM innate releasing mechanism- black box approach -feature detectors in the nervous system -biological bases of the regulation of behavior - specialization of the nervous system - hormones |
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donald griffin
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-coined term echolocation
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lateral lemniscus
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-neurons that block transmission of auditory messages to higher regions of the brain during vocalization - blocking loud sounds
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inferior colliculus
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-has "echo-detector" cells that are sensitive to the second of two separate sound stimuli
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tracking neurons
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-in both areas these neurons remain active as long as the interval between the orientation cry and the echo continues to decrease=getting closer
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roeder
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-auditory systems of moth - receptors A1 and A2
-spirals to ground and hopefully lands in a good hiding place -A2 causes muscles to stop beating wings to make it fly uncontrolled and plummets - wings cover ears when down -bats make terminal buzz when they are closer to moth - at start of buzz A1 and A2 firing, but at end A2 does not fire as much, A1 still fires |
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thalamus
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-see image of tall moving thing - cells sensitive to these images - shut down prey catching and escape - thalamus creates inhibitory action on optic tectum
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cockroach
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-cerci - filiform hairs (wind receptors)
-sense disturbances -brain not involved - ganglion and muscles |
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Hormones
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major methods to study hormone effects:
-direct manipulation -correlational studies -gene manipulation |
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Crews experiment
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receptivity of females:
-no males -castrated male (will not court female) -males with dewlap removed -intact males (females became receptive quickest) |
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Three adaptive patterns
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-the associated reproductive pattern - characterized by a close temporal association between gonadal activity and mating eg rats and anolis
-dissociated pattern - characterized by complete temporal uncoupling of mating behavior from gonadal maturation and sex steriod hormone secretion gametes produced after breeding season and stored for next eg red-sided garter snake (short breeding) -the constant reproductive pattern - mature gonads are maintained for prolonged periods in a constant state of readiness (unpredictable onset of usually brief favorable breeding conditions) eg sebra finch (desert dwelling) |
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navigation
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orientation over greater distance - use external cues to determine position in reference to destination as it moves about environment - map sense and compass sense
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migration
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involves navigation periodic movement from one location to another
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homing
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involves navigation: the ability to return to a home site or locale after being displaced (don't have basis)
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kinesis
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non directed movement in response to environment factors such as light, temperature, moisture
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taxis
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directed movement, the source or a gradient of some factor are detected and the organism moves in the appropriate direction
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rudiger wehner
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studies of desert ant, cataglyphis - position of sun
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migratory movements of green sea turtles
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-currents - magnetic fields - chemical cues - position of sun - wind cues
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salmon migration
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chemicals - olfactory imprinting
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bees
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landmarks provide map sense - use compass sense also
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pigeons
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-pigeons know sun angles and hours
-magnetic field detection and use |
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honey bee dance
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-waggle dance - # of waggles and orientation of straight run contain info about the distance and direction to food source - hive dance done in respect to veritcal position in hive - angle to sun
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challenge to dance of honey bee
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-olfactory cues - pheromones - nasanov gland at tip of abdomen
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James L. Gould
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-scented sugar water - bees visit - lock bees in hive - replace scented sugar water - bees should still go to where sugar water was, if dance works - majority did show
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"misinforming bees"
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-bee visits sugar water - paint eyes - bee does dance vertical to sun - bright light shined in - bee can't see so misinforms others
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