1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910779919203321

Autore

Avital Eytan <1951->

Titolo

Animal traditions : behavioural inheritance in evolution / / Eytan Avital and Eva Jablonka [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2000

ISBN

1-107-11860-3

9786610420964

0-511-54225-9

0-521-02211-8

0-511-17556-6

0-511-32536-3

1-280-42096-0

0-511-15600-6

0-511-04903-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xii, 432 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

591.5

Soggetti

Animal behavior

Behavior evolution

Behavior genetics

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-403) and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Preface -- New rules for old games -- What is pulling the strings of behaviour? -- Learning and the behavioural inheritance system -- Parental care -- the highroad to family traditions -- Achieving harmony between mates -- the learning route -- Parents and offspring -- too much conflict? -- Alloparental care -- an additional channel of information transfer -- The origins and persistence of group legacies -- Darwin meets Lamarck -- the co-evolution of genes and learning -- The free phenotype -- References -- Species index -- Subject index.

Sommario/riassunto

Animal Traditions maintains that the assumption that the selection of genes supplies both a sufficient explanation of the evolution and a true description of its course is, despite its almost universal acclaim, wrong. Eytan Avital and Eva Jablonka contend that evolutionary explanations



must take into account the well-established fact that in mammals and birds, the transfer of learnt information is both ubiquitous and indispensable. The introduction of the behavioural inheritance system into the Darwinian explanatory scheme enables the authors to offer new interpretations for common behaviours such as maternal behaviours, behavioural conflicts within families, adoption and helping. This approach offers a richer view of heredity and evolution, integrates developmental and evolutionary processes, suggests new lines for research, and provides a constructive alternative to both the selfish gene and meme views of the world. It will make stimulating reading for all those interested in evolutionary biology, sociobiology, behavioural ecology and psychology.