Signaling and Communication

• The naked mole rat lacks a circadian rhythm of activity. The ultimate adaptive significance of this point is that?


  The environment of the naked mole rate is such that queens and kings gain no reproductive advantage by having a sterile workforce that is active on a 24-hour schedule.
• To determine whether a circadian rhythm operated under endogenous control versus regulation via an environmental stimulus, it would be necessary to _?

  Show that the circadian rhythm mechanism could operate even in a constant environment.
• Many people think that adaptation is a trait that improves the survival chances of an organism. Under what circumstances would a survival-enhancing attribute be selected against?

  Inclusive fitness : not only your fitness that can impact survival, but has to do with the entire group. Bacteria that make a biofilm together. Self-sacrificial behavior but can help others survive who are exact replicas of yourself. 
• The Honeybee Waggle Dance:

  • As a forager performs the waggle-run portion of the dance, she shakes her abdomen from side to side.
  • The duration and orientation of the waggle runs contain information about the distance and direction to a food source.
• honest signaling, both sender and receiver obtain a fitness benefit. 
• Deceitful signaling: senders receive a benefit by manipulating receivers into playing a fitness cost.
• Eavesdropping occurs when the sender pays a fitness cost but the receiver gets a fitness benefit.
• Communication: an interaction in which a signaler produces a signal that affects the (current or future) behavior of a receiver and the fitness of one or both individuals.
• Signals: evolved messages containing information, adaptive for the signaler and usually for the receiver.
• Honest Signaling:

  Conditions that favor the evolution of signals as accurate or “honest” indicators.

  • The fitness interests of the signaler and receiver are aligned.
  • Signals are difficult or impossible to fake.
  • Signals are costly to produce or maintain. 
• Aposematic Coloration: brightly colored morphology in a species that stands out from the environment and is associated with noxious chemicals or poisons that make individuals unpalatable or dangerous prey.

  • honest signal
• Alarm Calls: unique vocalizations produced when a predator is nearby. Some species, like velvet monkeys, produce different alarm calls for different predators.

  • honest signal
• Dishonest Signaling: when the fitness interests of signalers and receivers conflict. The signaler can benefit by producing an inaccurate or dishonest signal.
• Mimicry: the adaptive resemblance of one species (the mimic) to another (the model).
• Which of the following is NOT a condition that favors the evolution of signals that are indicators of conditions?

  Signal production is frequency-dependent
• The American kestrel is a small falcon that is sometimes taken as prey by larger birds. It has two large spots on the back of its head that somewhat resemble large eyes. This is likely an example of?

  Deceitful Signaling
• Learning: a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience.

  • allows animals to modify their behavior to respond to the environment.
• Should learning evolve in a fixed or dynamic world?

  Neither.

  • in a fixed world, there is no need to learn bc of environmental consistency.
  • in a dynamic world, learning is not beneficial bc of unpredictable changes in the environment.
• The real world is usually intermediate, making learning adaptive and expected to frequently evolve.
• Imprinting: rapid learning occurring in young animals during a short, intensive period that has long-lasting effects.

  • Ex: birds learning migration routes from parents
• Classical Conditioning: type of learning in which a novel stimulus is paired with an existing stimulus and elicits a particular innate response.

  • Ex: Pavlov making the dog salivate with a bell.
  • Passive for the organism.
• Operant Conditioning: type of learning in which an animal associates a behavior with a particular consequence.

  • Ex: Giving your dog a treat when they stay on their bed.
  • Active for the organism.
• Teaching: involves the active participation of an experienced individual in facilitating a naive individual.

  • teacher modifies its behavior in presence of pupil
  • behavior is costly to teacher
  • pupil acquires knowledge or skills more rapidly