adaptation
biological traits that help an individual to survive and reproduce
human eye
allows you to recognize and respond to the things around young
raccoons
primarily nocturnal and have good night vision and their front paws are very sensitive to help them detect food vs nonfood
bats
can navigate at night with echolocation
adaptive functions
refers to mental activity, movement control, attraction to certain stimuli, language, etc.
3 components of natural selection
individual differences
differential reproduction
heritability
Natural Selection
_____ traits are passed down to offspring
favourable
stabilizing selection
selection against any sort of trait that is dissimilar from species typical adaptive design
darwins finches
rapid evolutionary change, natural selection over a generation causes change in beak size to adapt to food availability
fitness
one’s ability to reproduce and leave copies of their genes in subsequent generations
sexual selection
type of natural selection that selects for traits that will increase likelihood of reproducing
peacock
deer
- males use antlers to fight, winner of fight mates with a harem of females
signs of sexually selected traits
- specific to breeding season
mate choice preferences
females are attracted to males whose traits convey that their offspring will be strong and healthy
species specific behaviour
selectively breeding animals
keep animals in captivity to breed them and pass on specific behaviours
honey bees
ground squirrels
selfish gene
natural selection will favour gene complexes that best serve their own interest
4 types of social behaviour
alturism
practice of helping others to survive and reproduce at a cost of yourself
lemmings
altruistic, commit suicide when group too large