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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In the ant colonies studied by Trivers and Hare, what do the ants do with eggs stolen from other colonies?

2. To what does Dawkins attribute changes to female mice as the population rises?

3. What chance does a parent have of giving a particular gene to a child?

4. What does Wynne-Edwards say happens when other animals communicate to the species that there is overpopulation?

5. What does Dawkins speculate might be a reason a female animal could be tricked into raising a child that is not her own?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Trivers and Dawkins differ in their interpretation of males investing energy into offspring before mating?

2. Why, from the standpoint of the selfish gene, is it more beneficial to save five siblings than five cousins?

3. Describe Trivers' observations of striped cleaner fish.

4. What examples does Dawkins give of male animals resisting raising offspring that's not their own?

5. Explain the conflict between Wynne-Edwards and Dawkins over territory behavior.

6. What does Dawkins substitute for survival of a species?

7. Why does Dawkins say mothers are more altruistic to their children than fathers?

8. According to Dawkins, in what ways does weaning benefit an older child?

9. What may happen to guillemot eggs, and what is the adaptation of guillemots to deal with this?

10. What is the result of Dawkins' game theory analysis of male and female sexual and childrearing behaviors?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the idea of stability in natural systems.

1) What is ESS, and why is it valuable to scientists who are studying natural systems?

2) Why does nature tend toward stable systems? What causes this rule to be true?

3) How does stability affect evolution? What is its relationship to competition?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the relationship between parents and offspring in Dawkins' book.

1) How are offspring of organisms different than replications of protein molecules? How do organisms relate to their offspring?

2) How much variation is there in the natural world in how parents treat and care for their offspring? How does Dawkins account for this variation?

3) What factors affect parental care for offspring in Dawkins' theory?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss Dawkins' treatment of memes.

1) How does Dawkins apply theories of evolution to memes? How do memes differ from genes?

2) What role do memes play in human culture? Do memes play any role in other species' existence?

3) How do memes relate to Dawkins' theory of the selfish gene? Why does he discuss memes?

(see the answer keys)

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