Deck 1: An Introduction to Animal Behavior

Question 1

"If female lizards with reddish throats produce more eggs than females with orangish throats, then the reddish throat is an evolved adaptation." This statement

A) is true, because this species has variation, a critical requirement for the evolution of adaptations by natural selection.
B) is false, because females with orangish throats could still have more offspring that live to reproduce than females with reddish throats.
C) is false, because there is no guarantee that females with reddish throats are the best for the long-term preservation of this species.
D) could be true or false, because we cannot tell without knowing whether reddish females outnumber orangish females in this species.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The statement "Lemmings disperse from areas of high population density because they inherited this ability from a lemming-like ancestor in the past" is a hypothesis about

A) evolved function.
B) genetics and development.
C) evolutionary history.
D) adaptive value.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The infanticide hypothesis, which posits that infanticide is a reproduction-enhancing tactic practiced by males, is called a hypothesis because it

A) can be proven.
B) is an explanation based on limited evidence that can be tested.
C) is mutually exclusive to any other potential explanations.
D) is a basic principle that can be applied widely.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In order for Darwinian natural selection to cause evolutionary change, a population must contain individuals that differ hereditarily in some characteristic because

A) in a population without this kind of variation, the species is doomed to extinction.
B) when all individuals have the same genes, then all individuals are exactly alike in all respects.
C) uniform populations are evolutionary dead ends.
D) unless there is variation of this sort, parents cannot pass on their advantageous attributes to their offspring.

Question 5

We observe variation in a population of lizard with respect to how fast individuals can run. We attempt to select for the ability to run slowly, not quickly. After six generations of selective breeding of only the slowest with the slowest, the mean running speed of the lizards has not changed. What is the appropriate scientific conclusion based on this work?

A) After six generations of artificial selection, the frequency of slow runners in the population has remained unchanged.
B) After six generations of artificial selection, the frequency of slow runners in the population has increased.
C) The differences between the lizards in running speed in the original population were not caused by genetic differences among them.
D) The results are invalid because the researchers failed to maintain enough variation in running speed in their selected lineage, so evolutionary change was impossible.

Question 6

We observe a frog that carries its babies on its back away from where the eggs hatched. Here are two questions about this observation:
X) Does the frog do this to move the babies to a place where they will be safer and more likely to survive?
Y) Does the frog have specific morphological traits that enable it to hold and transfer its babies in this way?
Which of the two is a proximate question?

A) X, because it considers the adaptive value or function of the trait
B) Y, because it asks about the developmental mechanisms that influence the components of the animal
C) Both X and Y, because they look at the immediate and mechanistic causes of the behavior
D) Neither X or Y, because they both take an adaptive or evolutionary approach to look at the ultimate causes of the behavior

Question 7

We observe a frog that carries its babies on its back away from where the eggs hatched. Here are two questions about this observation:
X) Does the frog do this to move the babies to a place where they will be safer and more likely to survive?
Y) Does the frog have specific morphological traits that enable it to hold and transfer its babies in this way?
Which of the two is an ultimate question?

A) X, because it considers the adaptive value or function of the trait
B) Y, because it asks about the developmental mechanisms that influence the components of the animal
C) Both X and Y, because they look at the immediate and mechanistic causes of the behavior
D) Neither X or Y, because they both take an adaptive or evolutionary approach to look at the ultimate causes of the behavior

Question 8

Which is an example of a Darwinian puzzle?

A) Salmon can smell a few molecules of chemicals in the stream in which they were born.
B) Adult birds scream in pain when caught by a predator.
C) If two or even three eggs are added to a bird's nest, the adult birds often can rear them successfully along with their own chicks.
D) Bats can catch moths in complete darkness thanks to their ability to hear echoes from their own cries.

Question 9

Consider the following observation: Male song sparrows sing more at dawn than during any other time the day.
With regard to this observation, the statement "Males sing to provide accurate information to mates about their physical condition" is an example of

A) a causal question.
B) a prediction.
C) test evidence.
D) a hypothesis.

Question 10

Consider the following observation: Male song sparrows sing more at dawn than during any other time the day.
With regard to this observation, the statement "Males that receive a 'care package' of extra food the day before should produce more songs during the dawn hour than those that do not receive supplemental food" is an example of

A) a causal question.
B) a prediction.
C) test evidence.
D) a hypothesis.

Question 11

Consider the following observation: Male song sparrows sing more at dawn than during any other time the day.
With regard to this observation, the statement "What is the evolved function of the pattern of song production by the song sparrow?" is an example of

A) a causal question.
B) a prediction.
C) test evidence.
D) a hypothesis.

Question 12

If an adaptation is the product of natural selection, the trait will

A) provide a net reproductive gain for individuals that possess the attribute.
B) raise the reproductive success of individuals more than any other alternative that has appeared in the species over evolutionary time.
C) enhance the survival of the fittest individuals in the species.
D) help preserve the species as a whole against the risk of extinction.

Question 13

Deceptive signaling is widespread in nature. For example, certain orchids lure pollinator wasps to them with flower petals that smell like receptive female wasps. This case is a Darwinian puzzle because

A) the proportion of orchid flowers that set fruit as result of successful pollination is low.
B) the time and energy spent on these orchids reduces the capacity of the wasp population to grow, since the deceptive plants slow the ability of male wasps to fertilize all the eggs of their females.
C) it is unknown why orchid flowers evolved to smell like the females of certain wasps.
D) natural selection ought to favor discriminating behavior on the part of male wasps so that they do not waste time, energy, and even sperm on orchid flowers.

Question 14

In what way does the theory of descent with modification differ from the theory of evolution by natural selection?

A) Organisms can evolve even if natural selection is not responsible for the changes that occur.
B) Descent with modification applies only to large animals and plants and not to smaller organisms, like bacteria and protozoans.
C) The theory of descent with modification is designed to explain why organisms have evolved adaptations, whereas natural selection explains why organisms can persist unchanged over long periods of evolutionary time.
D) Descent with modification provides an account of the evolutionary events that took place as a modern species evolved from ancestral ones; natural selection theory provides a means for why some changes spread through a species while others did not.

Question 15

The existence of workers among honey bees and other eusocial insects is considered a Darwinian puzzle because

A) these workers are largely sterile and so should be eliminated over time by natural selection.
B) Darwin felt that the self-sacrificing behavior of these insects could not be explained by the theory of group selection.
C) the self-sacrificing workers do not live as long as the queens of the same species of eusocial insects.
D) queens with a large worker force produce more reproductive sons and daughters than those with a small worker force.

Question 16

In a gene-centered view of evolution by natural selection

A) organisms with alleles for the most adaptive traits have higher survival and reproduction and thus are able to pass on these traits to their offspring.
B) evolution is synonymous with natural selection, in which individuals that reproduce more cause a population or species to evolve over time.
C) evolution is a change in gene frequency within a population, where only genes (not organisms) replicate themselves.
D) natural selection is a process that aims to maximize traits that will perpetuate the species' survival.

Question 17

Refer to the figure.
Colonial swallows and ground-nesting gulls both exhibit predator mobbing behavior, while solitary nesting swallows and kittiwakes do not. Which relationship indicated on the phylogeny illustrates convergent evolution?

A) A
B) B
C) C
D) None of the above.

Question 18

Refer to the figure.
Which relationship indicated on the phylogeny illustrates divergent evolution?

A) A
B) B
C) C
D) None of the above.

Question 19

Select a behavioral trait that has been discussed in class, and describe a plausible evolutionary scenario for how that trait was produced, incorporating the three conditions (or tenets) of the theory of natural selection.

Question 20

What are the proximate and ultimate explanations for the adaptive value of a male langur's harming the offspring of females in his group?

Question 21

A researcher is interested in understanding the different alarm calls and responses given by Japanese tits to different predators. The researcher hypothesizes that Japanese tits give different alarm calls depending on the type of predator that they see (for instance, a snake versus a crow) in order to illicit a different antipredator response. Briefly describe how the researcher could study this behavior using an observational, an experimental, and a comparative approach, and note a cost and benefit of each approach.

Question 22

Refer to the figure.
The graph displays the impact of gull behavior on crows foraging for chicken eggs (mock gull eggs) that were placed outside, on the border, or inside the gull colony. Do the data below support the predator distraction hypothesis?