Inquiry in the Natural World – Spring 2003

Student Topic Guide # 12: Sex and Mate Selection

Topic objectives:

1. Be able to explain why sexual –vs.- asexual reproduction is beneficial to organisms
2. Be able to explain the idea of sexual selection and give examples in the animal world
3. Know the preferences of men and women in mate selection
4. Be able to explain how Trivers’s theory and paternity uncertainty contribute to parental investment and sexual preferences
5. Know what pheromones are and what evidence we have to their existence
6. Be able to explain, using examples, human sperm competition and what it says about our evolutionary past.

Day 2

http://web.sbu.edu/physics/faculty/dimattio/Clare102/physics.dimattio-sp03.htm

Reading Assignment:Readings from Palmer and Palmer. 2002. Evolutionary Psychology: The Ultimate Origins of Human Behavior. Chapter 5.

Learning Exercises:

1. Explain the ideas of the following scientists:

- Darwin (sexual selection)

- Trivers

- Fisher

- Singh

- Bellis & Baker

2. Relay the similarities of animals and man in preferences of a mate.

3. Describe what the Waist to Hip ratio is and what it tells about the individual.

4. Give the two most important components of males to females, and why this is. Also give the two most important components of females to males and why this is the case.

Day 3

http://web.sbu.edu/physics/faculty/dimattio/Clare102/physics.dimattio-sp03.htm

Reading Assignment:Readings from Palmer and Palmer. 2002. Evolutionary Psychology: The Ultimate Origins of Human Behavior. Chapter 5.

Learning Exercises:

1. Give four pieces of evidence that humans have a sixth sense, being able to detect pheromones.

2. Explain sperm competition, and why it would have evolved

3. What are the physiological and psychological pieces of evidence that point toward our evolutionary past being filled with adultery.

4. Explain why there are differences in primates as far as the body to testes ratio is concerned.