ANT211H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Unimodality, Egg Cell, The Selfish Gene
Document Summary
Where animals vary, and where those variations are at least partly inherited, the less successful varieties will be eliminated, and the more successful will become relatively numerous. A successful organisms traits must be passed on to descendants. Those descendants must reach maturity and reproduce. The study of behavior based on darwinian paradigm. Basis in population genetics and evolutionary theory. Four explanations to answer why in biology: proximate causation, concerns the direct mechanisms that bring something about, structural description. Ultimate causation: concerns adaptive significance, causation on a generational time scale, ontogeny, phylogeny, development within an individual"s life span, evolutionary progression by which the behavior has been formed out of the pre- existing organization. Survival is relevant only in the service of reproduction. Can be estimated numerically to predict the rate at which genes are eliminated or spread. Is specific to a particular population at a particular time: always expressed relative to alternatives.
