#377 Michael Taborsky: The Evolution of Altruism and Sexual Reproduction
RECORDED ON JULY 21st, 2020.
Dr. Michael Taborsky is the Director of the Behavioural Ecology Department and Co-director of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Bern, Switzerland. His major research focus is the adaptive function of behavior, with emphasis on cooperation and conflict, sociality and sexual reproduction.
In this episode, we talk about eusociality, and how it might tie back to the evolution of organisms, and the division of labor between specialized cells. We also discuss the evolution of altruism, and the many evolutionary mechanisms behind it, like kin selection, reciprocity, and group selection. We focus on generalized reciprocity and unconditional prosociality. Then, we move on to talk about sexual reproduction, how it evolved, fixed and plastic reproductive strategies, and its relationship with life history phenotypes. Finally, we mention the evolution cooperative breeding.
Time Links:
The species Dr. Taborsky focus the most on
Eusociality
The evolution of organisms
The evolution of altruism (kin selection, reciprocity, group selection)
What is generalized reciprocity?
What is unconditional prosociality, and how is it distinct from reciprocity?
How did sexual reproduction evolve?
What are fixed and plastic reproductive strategies?
The relationship between life history phenotypes and alternative reproductive strategies
The evolution of cooperative breeding
Follow Dr. Taborsky’s work!
Follow Dr. Taborsky’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2Rp3Ynt
Institute of Ecology and Evolution: https://bit.ly/2CzSjhd
ResearchGate progile: https://bit.ly/2y9V7it