Geometry for the selfish herd.
TL;DR: An antithesis to the view that gregarious behaviour is evolved through benefits to the population or species is presented, and simply defined models are used to show that even in non-gregarious species selection is likely to favour individuals who stay close to others.
About: This article is published in Journal of Theoretical Biology.The article was published on 1971-05-01. It has received 3343 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Selfish herd theory & Population.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors take up the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinship theory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences.
Abstract: Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinship theory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. Readership: general; students of biology, zoology, animal behaviour, psychology.
10,880 citations
TL;DR: This review considers recent findings regarding GC action and generates criteria for determining whether a particular GC action permits, stimulates, or suppresses an ongoing stress-response or, as an additional category, is preparative for a subsequent stressor.
Abstract: The secretion of glucocorticoids (GCs) is a classic endocrine response to stress. Despite that, it remains controversial as to what purpose GCs serve at such times. One view, stretching back to the time of Hans Selye, posits that GCs help mediate the ongoing or pending stress response, either via basal levels of GCs permitting other facets of the stress response to emerge efficaciously, and/or by stress levels of GCs actively stimulating the stress response. In contrast, a revisionist viewpoint posits that GCs suppress the stress response, preventing it from being pathologically overactivated. In this review, we consider recent findings regarding GC action and, based on them, generate criteria for determining whether a particular GC action permits, stimulates, or suppresses an ongoing stressresponse or, as an additional category, is preparative for a subsequent stressor. We apply these GC actions to the realms of cardiovascular function, fluid volume and hemorrhage, immunity and inflammation, metabolism, neurobiology, and reproductive physiology. We find that GC actions fall into markedly different categories, depending on the physiological endpoint in question, with evidence for mediating effects in some cases, and suppressive or preparative in others. We then attempt to assimilate these heterogeneous GC actions into a physiological whole. (Endocrine Reviews 21: 55‐ 89, 2000)
6,707 citations
Cites background from "Geometry for the selfish herd."
...The strategizing of individuals to wind up safely in the center of such clusters is termed “the geometry of selfish herd” (324); individuals on the perimeter are most likely to be predated (321)....
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TL;DR: For several years the study of social behavior has been undergoing a revolution with far-reaching consequences for the social and biological sciences, partly due to growing acceptance of the evidence that the potency of natural selection is overwhelmingly concentrated at levels no higher than that of the individual.
Abstract: For several years the study of social behavior has been undergoing a revolution with far-reaching consequences for the social and biological sciences. Partly responsible are three recent changes in the attitudes of evolutionary biologists. First was growing acceptance of the evidence that the potency of natural selection is overwhelmingly concentrated at levels no higher than that of the individual. Second was revival of the comparative method, especially as applied to behavior and life histories. Third was spread of the realization that not only are all aspects of structure and function of organisms to be understood solely as products of selection, but because of their peculiarly direct relationship to the forces of selection, behavior and life history phenomena, long neglected by the evolutionists, may be among the most predictable of all phenotypic attributes. These ideas have been appreciated by a few biologists for a long time, but they have only recently begun to characterize the science as a whole. Darwin’s discussion of sterility between species as an incidental effect of evolutionary adaptation (41, p. 260) and his refusal to deal with sex ratio selection (42, p. 399) suggest awareness of the difficult problem of determining the levels at which selection is most powerful. Yet significant clarification of this basic issue did not really commence until publication of Wynne-Edwards’ massive volume (179) championing group selection and inadvertently exposing its unlikelihood. As late as 1958, Fisher felt constrained to add to the revised edition of his 1929 classic, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, the admonishment (53, p. 49) that his fundamental theorem and its associated considerations, already misused then by decades of population geneticists dealing (as they saw it) with the fitness of populations, refer strictly to "the progressive modification of structure or function only in so far as variations in these are ofadvantage to the individual... [and afford] no corresponding explanation for any properties of animals and plants.., supposed to be of service to the species to which they belong." Williams’ critique (171) provided a significant turning point. Nevertheless, one has only to pick up any biological journal or attend any biological meeting to realize that this question has not yet been settled for all
3,216 citations
TL;DR: The paper describes different feeding styles among antelope, in terms of selection of food items and coverage of home ranges, and argues that these feeding styles bear a relationship to maximum group size of feeding animals through the influence of dispersion ofFood items upon group cohesion.
Abstract: The types of social organisation displayed by the African antelope species have been assigned in this paper to five classes, distinguished largely by the strategies used by the reproductively active males in securing mating rights, and the effects of those strategies on other social castes. The paper attempts to show that these strategies are appropriate to each class because of the effects of other, ecological, aspects of their ways of life. The paper describes different feeding styles among antelope, in terms of selection of food items and coverage of home ranges. It argues that these feeding styles bear a relationship to maximum group size of feeding animals through the influence of dispersion of food items upon group cohesion. The feeding styles also bear a relationship to body size and to habitat choice, both of which influence the antelope species' antipredator behaviour. Thus feeding style is related to anti-predator behaviour which, in many species, influences minimum group size. Group size and the pattern of movement over the annual home range affect the likelihood of females being found in a given place at a given time, and it is this likelihood which, to a large extent, determines the kind of strategy a male must employ to achieve mating rights. The effects of the different strategies employed by males can be seen in such aspects of each species' biology as sexual dimorphism, adult sex ratio, and differential distribution of the sexes.
2,088 citations
Book•
15 Dec 1997
TL;DR: The authors discuss GP software tools, including Discipulus, the GP software developed by the authors, and Appendix D mentions events most closely related to the field of genetic programming.
Abstract: Four appendices summarize valuable resources available for the reader: Appendix A contains printed and recorded resources, Appendix B suggests web-related resources, Appendix C discusses GP software tools, including Discipulus, the GP software developed by the authors, and Appendix D mentions events most closely related to the field of genetic programming. URLs can be found online at http://mkp.com/GPIntro.
1,256 citations
References
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01 Jan 1966
4,508 citations
"Geometry for the selfish herd." refers background in this paper
...Apart from the forced circumstances, and the unnatural dispositions engendered by domestication, females usually do not associate with, still less defend, young which are not their own (Williams, 1966)....
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...G. C. Williams, originator of the theory of fish schooling that I am here supporting (Williams, 1964, 1966) points out that schooling is particularly evident in the fish that inhabit open waters....
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3,382 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1962
TL;DR: Wynne-Edwards has written this interesting and important book as a sequel to his earlier (1962) Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behaviour, and reviewing it has proven to be a valuable task for one who normally is only at the periphery of the group selection controversy.
Abstract: Wynne-Edwards has written this interesting and important book as a sequel to his earlier (1962) Animal Dispersion in Relation to Social Behaviour. Reviewing it has proven to be a valuable task for one who normally is only at the periphery of the group selection controversy. My comments will be organized into three sections: one regarding the factual content of the book, a second attempting to relate my own expectations and predictions based on soft selection with facts described by Wynne-Edwards, and a third criticizing the argument that has been advanced for group selection. A number of important studies have been summarized in this book. Foremost is the extensive work on red grouse with which Wynne-Edwards has been associated for more than 30years. A great deal of ecological, physiological, nutritional, and behavioural information regarding this bird has been reviewed in seven chapters (pp. 84-170) with additional comments liberally sprinkled elsewhere. Anyone interested in avian biology who has missed this important study must read this book. Also extensively reviewed is the work of Michael Wade on group selection in Tribolium, the flour beetle. Wade's data are presented in enough detail that his work can be understood by those who have not seen the original publications. [Twice (pp. 210 and 233) reference is made to a 40-fold difference between two of Wade's selected lines, whereas the figure on p. 209 suggests that the difference is nearer 7-fold. Figure 11-16 also contains an error.] A number of other studies have been reviewed in some, but not exhaustive, detail. Among these are Smithers and Terry's analysis of immunology in schistosomiasis, Birdsell's studies of the social structure of Australian aborigines and Sewell Wright's shifting balance theory of evolution. Numerous other observations are cited in the text, none in so great detail as those mentioned here, and many in such rapid succession as nearly to overwhelm the reader. Many of Wynne-Edwards' conclusions are based on densityand frequencydependent selection, territoriality and the migration of individuals between and within populations at various heirarchal levels (in-groups, demes, populations and higher categories). Still, there is no mention of authors such as Howard Levene or Wyatt Anderson. Consequently, I feel justified in presenting
1,842 citations
1,643 citations
"Geometry for the selfish herd." refers background in this paper
...…defence of others are sometimes shown by gregarious mammals and birds, but where such actions occur they are probably connected on the one hand with the smallness of the risk taken and, on the other, with the closeness of the genetical relationship of the animals benefited (Hamilton, 1963)....
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