BIOL 1108 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Endocrine System, Optimal Foraging Theory, Kin Selection
Document Summary
Core concepts: for any behavior, we can ask what causes it, how it develops, what adaptive function it serves, and how it evolved. Behavior is influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. Behavior evolves by natural selection, just like any other trait: behavioral traits vary in populations, these traits have a (partial) genetic basis. Individuals with advantageous behavior reproduce more: advantageous behaviors increase, a common way to interpret a behavior: how does it increase survival and reproductive success? (i. e. , ultimate causation) Fixed action pattern: a sequence of unlearned behaviors that is essentially unchangeable and invariant, an innate behavior, generally, a behavior that is so important that all genetic variation has been lost, think red bottom fish, tinbergen"s experiment. Migration: the long-distance movement of a population associated with the change of seasons and resources. Optimal foraging theory: the farther you travel to find food, the more food it takes for that investment to be worth it, cost benefit analysis.
