BIODIVERSITY 2: KIN SELECTION AND SEXUAL SELECTION
Animal Groups vs. Animal Societies
Group: random collection of individuals; unstable and temporary; animals maintain own selfish interests
o Benefits of joining a group
Reduced likelihood of being preyed upon
Increased foraging efficiency
Sharing of location and other resources
Building “homes” together
o Costs of joining a group
Increased competition for resources
Increased conspicuousness to predators and prey
Increased likelihood of contracting parasites or diseases
o Group will form if benefits outweigh costs
Animal societies: related individuals, stable over time
o Overlapping generations
o Cooperative care of the young
o Reproductive division of labor
Eusociality: some individuals are incapable of breeding
Cooperative breeding: all individuals are capable of breeding but some (for now) do not
Coefficient of Relatedness in Diploids vs. Haploids
Coefficient of relatedness (r): probability that two individuals A and B share identical alleles because of
common ancestry
o Diploids
r A ,B =( 0.5)n
A=¿ individual #1
B=¿ individual #2
n=¿ # of connecting links
o Non-diploids
Sisters are more related to each other than they are to their own daughters
Direct, Indirect, Inclusive Fitness and Hamilton’s Rule
Direct fitness: reproducing and rearing descendants
Indirect fitness: assisting and rearing non-descent kin
Inclusive fitness: sum of direct fitness and indirect fitness
Altruism: behavior by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the
fitness of the actor
o When it arises
Kin selection: individuals share genetic material
Reciprocal altruism: individuals expect that others will help them in the future
o Hamilton’s Rule: rB > C
B = benefit to recipient of altruistic behavior
C = cost to altruistic individual
r = coefficient of relatedness
Evolutionary Games Based on Game Theory
Elements of an evolutionary game
o Players
o Strategies
o Consequences (payoffs)
Evolutionary Game Theory
o Used for predicting combinations of social behaviors for interacting individuals
o Used when an individual’s fitness depends upon behavior of other individuals
Sexual Selection vs. Natural Selection
Sexual selection: selection on traits used in competition and mate attraction to increase access to mates
Traits on which sexual selection acts
o Competition: members of one sex compete against each other for mates
Sexual selection through competition produces “weapons”
o Mate choice: members of one sex prefer a particular trait in the members of the opposite sex
Sexual selection through mate choice produces “ornaments”
Why mostly males compete
o Fundamental Asymmetry of Sex
Eggs are large and sperm are small
Eggs relatively expensive and sperm cheap
o Parental Investment
In most species, mothers invest more in offspring care than fathers
Uniparental care by mother is the norm in most species
Limits to the evolution of sexual traits
o Costly traits
o Honest traits: sexually select traits that signal quality (e.g. resistance to disease, “good” genes)
Sexually Antagonistic Coevolution
Why it occurs
o Consequence of sexual selection acting through male-male conflict
o Occurs when traits evolve that further the interests of one sex over the other
o Males want to out-compete other males and reproduce successfully
How it occurs
o Persistence traits in males: more successful reproduction compared to other males, but which
harm the opposite sex
o Resistance traits in females: mechanisms that make it more difficult for undesired males to mate
successfully
o Persistence traits and resistance traits coevolve
