Self-paced
P1
Mechanisms for recognizing kin are found throughout the plant and animal kingdoms, regardless of an organism's social or mental complexity. ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███
Phenomenon ·
Many plants and animals can recognize "kin" (relatives)
Inclusive fitness hypothesis ·
Organisms transmit genetic material through relatives (not just offspring)
Contrast inclusive fitness with traditional view of evolution. Under traditional view, natural selection favors those with the most offspring. Inclusive fitness suggests natural selection also favors organisms who help their relatives (because this helps spread the organism's own genes).
Inclusive fitness applied ·
Helps to explain why social insects like bees evolved
P2
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Inclusive fitness applied ·
Theory predicts that cannibals will avoid eating their own relatives
Example of theory applied to cannibals ·
Spadefood toad tadpoles
Some tadpoles eat their own species. But they nip at other tadpoles before eating, and end up eating only nonsiblings. Suggests they're trying to avoid eating their kin. But, they're more likely to eat kin when they're very hungry.
P3
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Other explanations for kin recognition ·
Inclusive fitness theory isn't the only explanation
Example showing other explanation ·
Tiger salamander larva
Some larva are cannibals. The bacteria are more deadly to close relatives, because the relatives have a similar immune system to the infected larva. So, when tiger salamanders avoid eating their close relatives, it could be because they just don't want to die from the bacteria in their relatives. This is about the organism's individual self-interest, not about trying to increase overall genetic representation.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
14.
The information in the passage ████ ████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████
a
was not known ██ ██ ████ ██████ ███ █████
Not supported, because we’re not given anything suggesting when we learned about this honeybee behavior. (1960s is mentioned in connection with the development of inclusive fitness theory.)
b
can be explained ████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ███████ ███ ██ ████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ███████
Not supported, because we have no basis to think that an explanation of the honeybee behavior requires reciprocal behavior among the bees that are nurtured. (Maybe most bees take care of the queen bee, and the queen bee doesn’t nurture anyone else.)
c
is what led ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ █████████
Not supported, because there’s no evidence that “most” biologists have rejected the traditional view of evolution. Although inclusive fitness theory involves a modification of the traditional view of evolution, we don’t know that this requires rejecting the traditional view or that most biologists believe the inclusive fitness theory.
d
calls into question ███ ████ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████ █████████
Not supported, because even inclusive fitness theory
e
is difficult to ███████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████████ ███ ███████████ ████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████ ███████████ ██████████
Supported, because the author calls the honeybee behavior “mysterious.” Under traditional evolutionary theory, which holds that individuals that produce the most offspring are most likely to continue their genetic representation, it’s hard to explain why most bees don’t produce offspring. Inclusive fitness theory, however, which is different from traditional evolutionary theory, helps to explain honeybee behavior.