Q37 - Group Selection Hypothesis
According to a particular hypothesis, individuals of certain species tend to decrease their use of resources for the benefit of other individuals. If they themselves feed less, for example, there may be more food left for other individuals in the population.
Analyse the following statements about this evolutionary hypothesis.
True or False?
Q37.1. The above hypothesis represents a classic group-selection argument, in which natural selection acts to increase the fitness of a population.
Q37.2. Group selection is now considered to be the most accepted mechanism to explain the evolution of the group behaviours of animals, in contrast to individual selection.
Q37.3. Logical evidence in favour of group selection could be obtained if different individuals within a group adopted completely different strategies to increase their own fitness.
Q37.4. The ability of one individual, within a group of animals, to adopt a strikingly different behavioural strategy from the others, could arise by chance.
Question reproduced from IBO 2023, Theoretical Paper 2, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF