Assignment #3 – Bio 17
1) Define the following terms:
Genotype:
Phenotype:
2) The number of genes that change their activity during the first 4 days of an adult bee’s life is
_________ genes while another _________ alter their expression in the next 4 days.
A) 5500, 1400
B) 2000, 600
C) 20, 10
D) 4, 8
E) none of the above
3) Place the following bee developmental stages in the correct order
___ Cleaning cells
___ Feeding larvae
___ Feeding nestmates
___ Foraging
___ Packing Pollen
4) What two compounds affect foraging behavior in bees? (One is produced in the corpora allata and the
other is found in the digestive system of already mature foragers?
5) The Blacked-capped chickadees and Clark’s nutcracker are known to store spatial information
(remember when they cache food) very well. This is due to:
A) genetic components
B) environmental components
C) both genetic and environmental components
D) neither genetic or environmental components
E) none of the above
6) What part of the brain is probably responsible for the difference in food storage between an Alaskan
Chickadee and the Colorado Chickadee?
A) Medulla oblongata
B) Cerebellum
C) Cerebrum
D) Hippocampus
E) Pons
7) How did Berthold and his team show that Blackcaps in Great Britain in the winter were not birds who
had lost their ability to migrate? How did he know his captive birds wanted to migrate? Where do these
birds actually come from?
8) How did Steve Arnold show that the coastal species of garter snake had a genetic preference for
banana slugs? If there was a 1% increase in reproductive success in coastal individuals who ate slugs
over those that don’t, how long would it take to evolve a population that is different than the majority of the
inland species?
9) Single-Gene Effects – What do the following genes do?
FosB Gene in mice –
Oxt Gene in male mice –
Trpc2 Gene in female mice –
for gene in fruit flies –
COMT in humans –
5-HTT in humans -
10) Define developmental homeostasis. Explain the results of the isolation experiment in Rhesus
monkeys.
11) What is the characteristic that may have an impact in dragonfly and human mate selection related to
developmental homeostasis?
A) Birth weight
B) Symmetry
C) Skin color
D) Length (of abdomen or height)
E) None of the above
12) Define Polyphenisms. How can this mechanism help the Tiger Salamander?
13) The experiment on the four corvids (Scrub Jay, Mexican Jay, Pinyon Jay, and Clark’s nutcracker)
showed :
A) the birds have evolved all purpose learning
B) the birds have evolved learning skills to promote problems in their area
C) the birds have equal spatial task abilities but differ in non spatial tasks
D) the birds have equal non spatial task abilities but differ in spatial tasks
E) two of the above are true
14) Explain why the meadow vole and prairie vole have different spatial learning abilities when comparing
males and females?
15) Explain Biases in taste aversion found in White Rats. (What can they link together?)
From the Article, Understanding the Genetic Construction of Behavior
1) Why have researchers failed to link specific human behaviors to solitary or small sets of genes?
2) What are the six different actions involved in fly courtship behavior? What occurs during each
step?
3) How did Hall identify the parts of the central nervous system for the courtship behavior?
4) What are the two seats of attraction in the male’s brain?
5) What does the fruitless gene influence in flies?
6) What does the “period” gene influence?
7) What behavior have males learned about courtship of females? How does this work? What is
the advantage? What gene is believed to be responsible for this behavior?
8) What is the Eag Gene? Why did the gene get this name?
9) What lessons can be learned from these fly studies?
Scientific American: Just How Smart are Ravens?
1. What are the three different observations of Ravens at the beginning of the article and what
were their hypotheses?
2. What was Otto Koehler’s pet Raven able to do in 1943?
3. Why did the treat on a string experiment allow Heinrich and Bugnyar to assume this behavior
was not trial and error learning? What type of Ravens could accomplish this goal? How did they
determine it was not “mentally” rewarding and actually knew it was attached to the perch?
What happened with the meat on a string was placed in a situation where they had to pull down
to make the food rise? When did the Raven’s give up?
4. What answer do the authors give to the reason humans (and ravens) don’t “do it right” the first
time (programmed from birth) and have to “muddle” through?
5. How do Ravens learn to cope with food bonanzas? What would happen if they used trial and
error? How is play defined? How do ravens benefit from “play” with large carnivores?
6. What was the information the authors learned from the hiding food experiment? Why do
young ravens play with objects? What is a “Knower”? What did ravens do around them?
7. How do the authors explain how ravens “learn” so quickly? (Learning can’t account for all the
observed behaviors)