2022: ANHB 2215
Question Set 1: Due Wk 7 Tute
Name______________________
PRINT THESE SINGLE SIDED AND BRING TO TUTORIAL.
These questions provide a starting point for discussion in tutorial. They are meant to stimulate your
thinking, to help you to develop a deeper understanding of concepts, and to give you practice in articulating
your understanding and application to the real world. To maximize their value to you, I suggest you write
answers before tutorials, amend, revise or add during discussion, etc. Use the lectures, readings, and
tutorial materials. These amended, hand written versions SHOULD be handed in. This exercise allows you
to practice writing terse informative responses without excess verbiage. This will be valuable on the exams.
WEEK 1-2.
1. Define natural selection in your own words – be careful not to be tautological (circular in reasoning).
2. What conditions are necessary for NS to occur? How does each of these elements shape the process
(hint: think about the production and reduction of variation)?
3. What is an adaptation? How do we know when a phenotypic trait is an adaptation? Think here
about the question of “now” rs the question of “past.” How might you devise an experiment to test
whether a phenotypic trait is an adaptation (think about what your independent /input and dependent
/outcome variables would be in this test)?
4. Why does it matter that “populations evolve?”
1. What is the problem with talking about species evolving?
2. Under what conditions can you actually talk about a species evolving?
1
2022: ANHB 2215
Question Set 1: Due Wk 7 Tute
Name______________________
WEEK 2-3
5. Define “sexual selection.” What are the two processes from which sexual selection can result?
Explain how two forms of sexual selection differ from each other.
6. Explain how sexual selection might result in a male phenotype that does not live as long as the
average female phenotype. Be careful here to articulate your assumptions and the logic of your
argument.
7. Kin selection is based on the probability of genes associated with a certain type of behaviour being
shared due to a common ancestor. Most cultures distinguish kin such as sibling, cousins, grandparents,
etc. Discuss the probability of shared alleles due to a common ancestor for each of these types of
relationships. Explain in your own words why close relatives are expected to be more cooperative than
unrelated individuals. Would the children of identical twin females married to identical twin males be
predicted to be more or less cooperative than average siblings; explain your logic.
2
2022: ANHB 2215
Question Set 1: Due Wk 7 Tute
Name______________________
8. What is an evolutionary trade-off? Graph what such a trade-off would look like. What do
evolutionary ecologists mean when they speak of a trade-off in regards to reproductive strategies?
How would you go about determining whether there is a trade-off between time spent developing
in utero and time spent developing after birth? Approach this by asking:
1) what is the relationship (variables, direction of relationship)?
2) What data do you need to show whether this is true? How would you graph the expected data?
3) How would you determine if any relationship was actually due to a relationship with body size?
9. What other life history traits would you expect to be typical of a small animal with a short life span?
Why? What is the key environmental factor setting this life history trajectory? Discuss the likely LH
of a large animal with a relatively short lifespan…
What changes if the impact of that environmental factor can be addressed by increased parental
investment?
3
2022: ANHB 2215
Question Set 1: Due Wk 7 Tute
Name______________________
WEEKS 3-5
10. What behaviours do you see in the SAN or the BAKA that are likely to be influenced by sexual
selection? Which type of sexual selection? Explain how sexual selection could result in the behaviours.
11. What are some demographic differences between foragers, horticulturalists and pastoralists and what
are the selection pressures that may have resulted in these differences? Explain your logic as precisely as
you can. (e.g. producing food means a higher population density can be supported)
12. Construct a diagram of the culture core (as per Julian Steward) of the Baka or !Kung San. Why in
the culture core is technology and environment in the centre or basic to all else? Use the contrasts you
are given in reading and in lecture to derive the components of your diagram. Be specific in your
diagram (i.e. don’t put “fertility” put ibi of 4 years, etc).
4
2022: ANHB 2215
Question Set 1: Due Wk 7 Tute
Name______________________
13. What is the difference between direct bias and indirect bias in cultural inheritance.
14. What are the benefits and the costs of the iterative nature of social learning?
15. Compare genetic mutation with guided variation. How are they similar, how are they different? What
is/are the differences in outcomes with guided variation rather than mutation?
5