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Study Questions for Levels of Selection
1. What are the five levels of selection
and what is the continuum along which we rank the various levels of selection?
2. In the t-allele example, how
is the force of geneic selection balanced by the process of individual selection?
How does the process of group selection
favor non-t-allele mice?
3. Under what conditions will group
selection overwhelm the force of individual selection? Discuss this in terms
of Wynne-Edwards original proposal for explaining how self-limiting reproductive
behaviors might evolve in a population.
4. What is the appropriate level
of selection to consider for behavioral traits and why? Pick the most appropriate
level or levels and explain your choice. (this covers the whole lecture
and the section's discussion group -- it would be suitable for a short essay).
5. Why are social hymenoptera predisposed to "altruism" more so than most
other organisms (see also Side Box)?
6. What is the whole-organism approach
and what is its most cutting <biting> argument regarding genic selection.
7. Describe Pfennigs experiment
on kin selection in tiger salamanders.
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