BIOL 459 Final Exam V2 (Latest 2026/ 2027 Update) Actual Questions & Answers
what is a social behaviour? ✔️✔️not indicating intent and thoughts of the animals, it just happens
effects on actor and recipient:
what constitutes a cooperative behaviour? ✔️✔️cooperative is when the interest of fitness of the two indivs is the same
what are the four types of intraspecific interactions? who benefits, who is harmed for each? ✔️✔️1. mutualism: good for both
2. altruistic: good for recipient but not actor
3. selfish: good for actor bad for recipient
4. spiteful: bad for both
what are the five main explanations for why cooperative behaviour evovles? ✔️✔️1. Kin selection: they are related so of course they want to
benefit both
2. Bi-product: might be cooperation that arises as a by-product of a selfish act. one organisms is doing a selfish act and it accidentally helps the
other, but really the selfish act is beign selected for.
3. Reciprocity: things like recirprocal altruism, where there be some return at a future date, trust or promise that the recipient will reiceve of
eual or greater value in the future.
4. Enforcement: not exactly cooperation but instead coercion happening, punishment and cheating. if they cheat maybe there is punishment if
they find out, or rewards for cooperation.
5. Group selection: mayeb... hard to find lots of examples, rare and under very specific conditions
what is diplodiploidy? ✔️✔️2n, regular meiosis...sex chromosmes determine sex
what is haplodiploidy? ✔️✔️amount go chromsomes determines sex..
be able to calculate the coefficient of relatedness for a diplodiploid family (as far out as first cousins) ✔️✔️...
what is meant by inclusive fitness? ✔️✔️kin selection:
direct fitnes = gene copies passed by oyurself
Indirect ftness: gene copies passed by relatives
inclusive = direct fitness + indirect fitness
sometimes mor important or as important as indirect fitness. might see some organisms decrease there own fitness to increase their relatives
fitness.
chapter 15 ✔️✔️
what are the components of inclusive fitness? ✔️✔️direct fitness + indirect fitness.??
what is Hamilton's rule? ✔️✔️tells you when kin selection matter most?
the less therelationship the more benfit there has to be to overcome the cost... go over this...
turkery example?
why do animals give alarm calls? ✔️✔️1. signal to the predaote: make future attacks less likely
2. reduce predator success
3. signal to conspecifics:increase predation risk for sender, benefits recivers. they are drawing attention to themself.
4.one way to recognize relatives
,in (Krakauer, 2005), why are turkeys displaying in pairs? what does the subordinate male have to gain? how did they demonstrate this?
✔️✔️Quantitiative test of hamiltons rules
the two males are forming females together, one male is domninant over the other and gets all the mating,
Krauker though its kin selected so they tested hamiltons rule. they were 42% related. theydid the math and it is supported that the benefit is
greater than the cost of having its ownoffsrping.
how do individual animals recognize kin? ✔️✔️dont necessarliy have to recognize it, but they are slected to act towards it.
1. social recognition: species, gender, social, indivdual, kin; either recognizing indivs of species or of gender, another level is recognizng indivs in
your social group, another level is recognizing certain indivs, this is most likley th emsot important type in sharing social behaviour in mammals
and birds, kin recognition is another type of social recognition, distinushing relatives fromnon relative.
2. condition vs. fixed strtegies:
-condition involves kin discrimition, recognizing and being involved with how they behave towards a certain indivdual is determined by how
they are related to the,. if they are sister thy behave one wy or the other.
-fixed: they have fixed behaviour whether they are realted or not. likley because they either dont recognize kin, or because they are always
encountering kin, everyone around them is related.
1. bheaviours may be affectd by average relatedness of indivuals-conditional..??
2. low dispersal = higher average relatedness. fixed..
why might kin recognition be unnecessary for kin selection to occur? ✔️✔️dont assume that it has to be about whether or not they can actually
tell if someone is your brother or not, if it is likley that everyone is your brother thn selection will favour altruism.
as long as selectiona cts on it, it doesnt matter if they can actuall recognize kin
what is the green beard effect? ✔️✔️two characters in a linakge disequlibrium,may be because they are on the same chromomse, or evolution
just causes it. but one is signaling one thing and the other singals another. two loci in disagreement with each other.
what is the green beard in fire ants? ✔️✔️multiple queens per nest
Gp-9 locus - green beard gene
Polygene queens =multiple heterozygous Bb
they thought all the queens are heterozygous, you would epxect this to be the opposite. this is because homozygous for the recessive allele
indivs die really early and do not make it to adulthood. any BB started to reproduce would likly be killed by workers. its thought that little b
alleles owuld induce the killing of queeens that are homozygous. they think this because of green beard effect they can smell it and sense out
the ones that dont have it and th ebb are aggressive and kill the ones that dont have it.
phenotypic thing causes to act on their behaviour. discriminating on the gene level
odor comes with BB.
go over this...
what is armpit effect? ✔️✔️Genetic kin discrimination: different from green beard, using relatedness based on odor rather than similar genes.
similar because they both evolved with odor cue, but different cause its relatedness vs one gene.
in cellular/multicellular slime molds like Dictyostelids, why are stalk cells willing to sacrifice themselves? ✔️✔️slime molds go through two stages
in their life cyle where they change from single to multicellular.
-normally exist in damp soil, but under starvation they develop into mutlicellular 'slug'
when food is scarce they come together and form a slug (pseudoplasmodium)
it it truley multicellular cause it has a matrix but its kinda a colony. aggregate using cAMP, creating a wave of cels moving towards a specific
point. ithin his fruity structure onyl some cells get to reproduce. the stalk cells are self sacrificing. spores reprodcue but stalk doesnt. only
, answer is kin selection. turns out they are about 80% related, think theysue odor to determine this. think lag genes related to cellular adhesion
produces odor to discriminate related indivs. they only form with their family
why might spiteful behaviour be favoured by selection? ✔️✔️it usually doesnt eveolve, may have been accidentally selcted for, organsims dont
always do the best option.
spite requires negative relatedness: if there is negative relatedness then we can have mutliple negatives to make it greater than 0.
recipient less closley related to the actor than average for the population. harming this indiv will increasr the fitness of relatives... go over this..
what is the ESS for the basic prisoner's dilemma as we discussed it? why? ✔️✔️Defecting was the best option becuase it had a lower avergae,,
that is it you never see the person again.
what is a sucker's payoff? ✔️✔️this is the dilemma, when one cooperates and the ohter defects. if you cooperate youare the sucker.
the dilemma is that they would both do better if they coperate, but it sucks if you cooperate and the other defcts. the problem is they dont
know what they other one iwll do.
what is prinoner's delight? how is it different from the basic prisoner's dilemma? ✔️✔️based on th eprisoners dilemma but its different.
they are faced with the choice to hunt in a cooperatve way or not, hunting requires 1 unit of energy, if two indivs cooperatrate and they hunt
tgether then the payoff is 10. but th epaoof has to be divided ebtween the twoplayers, therefore 5 each. so tht equal 4 total for cooprating.
if onyl one helps,one cooperates then the hunter returns 4 units and the ohter is a freeloader cause they are still kinda together. so 4 is divided
by 2 players minus the cost of hunting for the hunting indiv but not the one that didnt hunt. so the payoff for the indiv that hunted is 1, they are
the sucker. the freeloder got a payoof of 2.
Cooperate
Payoff = 10
Divided by two players, minus cost for each
Freeloading
Payoff = 4
Divided by two player
Sucker gets 2, minus cost of hunting
Freeloader gets 2 with no cost
HUNT is ESS (cooperation is fvaoured for selfish reasons)
Cheatin seems like a good strategy but it is actuallynot better than cooperating
how does prisoner's delight show how cooperation might be favoured by selection? ✔️✔️cooperation is favoured for selfish reasons
both get hgiher payoff for cooperating.
why is cooperation an ESS? ✔️✔️becuase both get more cooperation, even the freeloader. get double
what is pleometrosis? ✔️✔️cooperating to create a colony (polygyn = multiple queens)
why might primary polygny be favoured in some ant colonies? ✔️✔️if they do not do well on their own they are favoured to cooperate with
other colonies. weird because the queens establishing polygyny colonies are not related to each ohter.
-unrelated queens (gynes) - cooperative nest foudning
-benfit direct: quicker growth (higher survival rate if colonize and grow faster), better able to defend nest agaisnt raids if they are bigger, better
able to raid.
it doesnt usally last long. once workers begin to emerge and they a estalished the queens will often fight to the death.
in what way is the tit-for-tat strategy an example of reciprocal altruism? ✔️✔️it is a strategy:
what is a social behaviour? ✔️✔️not indicating intent and thoughts of the animals, it just happens
effects on actor and recipient:
what constitutes a cooperative behaviour? ✔️✔️cooperative is when the interest of fitness of the two indivs is the same
what are the four types of intraspecific interactions? who benefits, who is harmed for each? ✔️✔️1. mutualism: good for both
2. altruistic: good for recipient but not actor
3. selfish: good for actor bad for recipient
4. spiteful: bad for both
what are the five main explanations for why cooperative behaviour evovles? ✔️✔️1. Kin selection: they are related so of course they want to
benefit both
2. Bi-product: might be cooperation that arises as a by-product of a selfish act. one organisms is doing a selfish act and it accidentally helps the
other, but really the selfish act is beign selected for.
3. Reciprocity: things like recirprocal altruism, where there be some return at a future date, trust or promise that the recipient will reiceve of
eual or greater value in the future.
4. Enforcement: not exactly cooperation but instead coercion happening, punishment and cheating. if they cheat maybe there is punishment if
they find out, or rewards for cooperation.
5. Group selection: mayeb... hard to find lots of examples, rare and under very specific conditions
what is diplodiploidy? ✔️✔️2n, regular meiosis...sex chromosmes determine sex
what is haplodiploidy? ✔️✔️amount go chromsomes determines sex..
be able to calculate the coefficient of relatedness for a diplodiploid family (as far out as first cousins) ✔️✔️...
what is meant by inclusive fitness? ✔️✔️kin selection:
direct fitnes = gene copies passed by oyurself
Indirect ftness: gene copies passed by relatives
inclusive = direct fitness + indirect fitness
sometimes mor important or as important as indirect fitness. might see some organisms decrease there own fitness to increase their relatives
fitness.
chapter 15 ✔️✔️
what are the components of inclusive fitness? ✔️✔️direct fitness + indirect fitness.??
what is Hamilton's rule? ✔️✔️tells you when kin selection matter most?
the less therelationship the more benfit there has to be to overcome the cost... go over this...
turkery example?
why do animals give alarm calls? ✔️✔️1. signal to the predaote: make future attacks less likely
2. reduce predator success
3. signal to conspecifics:increase predation risk for sender, benefits recivers. they are drawing attention to themself.
4.one way to recognize relatives
,in (Krakauer, 2005), why are turkeys displaying in pairs? what does the subordinate male have to gain? how did they demonstrate this?
✔️✔️Quantitiative test of hamiltons rules
the two males are forming females together, one male is domninant over the other and gets all the mating,
Krauker though its kin selected so they tested hamiltons rule. they were 42% related. theydid the math and it is supported that the benefit is
greater than the cost of having its ownoffsrping.
how do individual animals recognize kin? ✔️✔️dont necessarliy have to recognize it, but they are slected to act towards it.
1. social recognition: species, gender, social, indivdual, kin; either recognizing indivs of species or of gender, another level is recognizng indivs in
your social group, another level is recognizing certain indivs, this is most likley th emsot important type in sharing social behaviour in mammals
and birds, kin recognition is another type of social recognition, distinushing relatives fromnon relative.
2. condition vs. fixed strtegies:
-condition involves kin discrimition, recognizing and being involved with how they behave towards a certain indivdual is determined by how
they are related to the,. if they are sister thy behave one wy or the other.
-fixed: they have fixed behaviour whether they are realted or not. likley because they either dont recognize kin, or because they are always
encountering kin, everyone around them is related.
1. bheaviours may be affectd by average relatedness of indivuals-conditional..??
2. low dispersal = higher average relatedness. fixed..
why might kin recognition be unnecessary for kin selection to occur? ✔️✔️dont assume that it has to be about whether or not they can actually
tell if someone is your brother or not, if it is likley that everyone is your brother thn selection will favour altruism.
as long as selectiona cts on it, it doesnt matter if they can actuall recognize kin
what is the green beard effect? ✔️✔️two characters in a linakge disequlibrium,may be because they are on the same chromomse, or evolution
just causes it. but one is signaling one thing and the other singals another. two loci in disagreement with each other.
what is the green beard in fire ants? ✔️✔️multiple queens per nest
Gp-9 locus - green beard gene
Polygene queens =multiple heterozygous Bb
they thought all the queens are heterozygous, you would epxect this to be the opposite. this is because homozygous for the recessive allele
indivs die really early and do not make it to adulthood. any BB started to reproduce would likly be killed by workers. its thought that little b
alleles owuld induce the killing of queeens that are homozygous. they think this because of green beard effect they can smell it and sense out
the ones that dont have it and th ebb are aggressive and kill the ones that dont have it.
phenotypic thing causes to act on their behaviour. discriminating on the gene level
odor comes with BB.
go over this...
what is armpit effect? ✔️✔️Genetic kin discrimination: different from green beard, using relatedness based on odor rather than similar genes.
similar because they both evolved with odor cue, but different cause its relatedness vs one gene.
in cellular/multicellular slime molds like Dictyostelids, why are stalk cells willing to sacrifice themselves? ✔️✔️slime molds go through two stages
in their life cyle where they change from single to multicellular.
-normally exist in damp soil, but under starvation they develop into mutlicellular 'slug'
when food is scarce they come together and form a slug (pseudoplasmodium)
it it truley multicellular cause it has a matrix but its kinda a colony. aggregate using cAMP, creating a wave of cels moving towards a specific
point. ithin his fruity structure onyl some cells get to reproduce. the stalk cells are self sacrificing. spores reprodcue but stalk doesnt. only
, answer is kin selection. turns out they are about 80% related, think theysue odor to determine this. think lag genes related to cellular adhesion
produces odor to discriminate related indivs. they only form with their family
why might spiteful behaviour be favoured by selection? ✔️✔️it usually doesnt eveolve, may have been accidentally selcted for, organsims dont
always do the best option.
spite requires negative relatedness: if there is negative relatedness then we can have mutliple negatives to make it greater than 0.
recipient less closley related to the actor than average for the population. harming this indiv will increasr the fitness of relatives... go over this..
what is the ESS for the basic prisoner's dilemma as we discussed it? why? ✔️✔️Defecting was the best option becuase it had a lower avergae,,
that is it you never see the person again.
what is a sucker's payoff? ✔️✔️this is the dilemma, when one cooperates and the ohter defects. if you cooperate youare the sucker.
the dilemma is that they would both do better if they coperate, but it sucks if you cooperate and the other defcts. the problem is they dont
know what they other one iwll do.
what is prinoner's delight? how is it different from the basic prisoner's dilemma? ✔️✔️based on th eprisoners dilemma but its different.
they are faced with the choice to hunt in a cooperatve way or not, hunting requires 1 unit of energy, if two indivs cooperatrate and they hunt
tgether then the payoff is 10. but th epaoof has to be divided ebtween the twoplayers, therefore 5 each. so tht equal 4 total for cooprating.
if onyl one helps,one cooperates then the hunter returns 4 units and the ohter is a freeloader cause they are still kinda together. so 4 is divided
by 2 players minus the cost of hunting for the hunting indiv but not the one that didnt hunt. so the payoff for the indiv that hunted is 1, they are
the sucker. the freeloder got a payoof of 2.
Cooperate
Payoff = 10
Divided by two players, minus cost for each
Freeloading
Payoff = 4
Divided by two player
Sucker gets 2, minus cost of hunting
Freeloader gets 2 with no cost
HUNT is ESS (cooperation is fvaoured for selfish reasons)
Cheatin seems like a good strategy but it is actuallynot better than cooperating
how does prisoner's delight show how cooperation might be favoured by selection? ✔️✔️cooperation is favoured for selfish reasons
both get hgiher payoff for cooperating.
why is cooperation an ESS? ✔️✔️becuase both get more cooperation, even the freeloader. get double
what is pleometrosis? ✔️✔️cooperating to create a colony (polygyn = multiple queens)
why might primary polygny be favoured in some ant colonies? ✔️✔️if they do not do well on their own they are favoured to cooperate with
other colonies. weird because the queens establishing polygyny colonies are not related to each ohter.
-unrelated queens (gynes) - cooperative nest foudning
-benfit direct: quicker growth (higher survival rate if colonize and grow faster), better able to defend nest agaisnt raids if they are bigger, better
able to raid.
it doesnt usally last long. once workers begin to emerge and they a estalished the queens will often fight to the death.
in what way is the tit-for-tat strategy an example of reciprocal altruism? ✔️✔️it is a strategy:
