handicap principle

(noun)

a theory that suggests that animals of greater biological fitness signal this status through a behavior or morphology that effectively lowers their chances of survival

Related Terms

  • sexual selection
  • sexual dimorphism

Examples of handicap principle in the following topics:

  • Sexual Selection

    • This idea is known as the handicap principle.
    • This male bird of paradise carries an extremely long tail as the result of sexual selection.The tail is flamboyant and detrimental to the bird's own survival, but it increases his reproductive success.This may be an example of the handicap principle.
  • Hardy-Weinberg Principle of Equilibrium

    • The Hardy-Weinberg principle can be used to estimate the frequency of alleles and genotypes in a population.
    • Ultimately, the Hardy-Weinberg principle models a population without evolution under the following conditions:
    • Although no real-world population can satisfy all of these conditions, the principle still offers a useful model for population analysis.
    • According to the Hardy-Weinberg principle, the variable p often represents the frequency of a particular allele, usually a dominant one.
    • From the Hardy-Weinberg principle and the known allele frequencies, we can also infer the frequencies of the genotypes.
  • Charles Darwin and Natural Selection

    • Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace independently developed the theories of evolution and its main operating principle: natural selection.
    • Natural selection, Darwin argued, was an inevitable outcome of three principles that operated in nature.
    • Both Darwin and Wallace were influenced by an essay written by economist Thomas Malthus who discussed this principle in relation to human populations.
  • Basic Principles of Gas Exchange

    • In order to understand the mechanisms of gas exchange in the lung, it is important to understand the underlying principles of gases and their behavior.
  • Scientific Reasoning

    • Deductive reasoning is a form of logical thinking that uses a general principle or law to forecast specific results.
    • From those general principles, a scientist can extrapolate and predict the specific results that would be valid as long as the general principles are valid.
  • Transforming Chemical Energy

    • ATP is the principle form of stored energy used for cellular functions and is frequently referred to as the energy currency of the cell.
  • Charales

  • Carbon Dating and Estimating Fossil Age

    • Together with stratigraphic principles, radiometric dating methods are used in geochronology to establish the geological time scale.
    • The principle of radiocarbon dating is simple: the rates at which various radioactive elements decay are known, and the ratio of the radioactive element to its decay products shows how long the radioactive element has existed in the rock.
  • The Galapagos Finches and Natural Selection

    • Natural selection, Darwin argued, was an inevitable outcome of three principles that operated in nature.
    • Out of these three principles, Darwin reasoned that offspring with inherited characteristics that allow them to best compete for limited resources will survive and have more offspring than those individuals with variations that are less able to compete.
  • History of DNA Research

    • In 1943, Oswald Theodore Avery developed the transforming principle.
    • He identified DNA, and not protein, as the transforming principle.
Subjects
  • Accounting
  • Algebra
  • Art History
  • Biology
  • Business
  • Calculus
  • Chemistry
  • Communications
  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Microbiology
  • Physics
  • Physiology
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Sociology
  • Statistics
  • U.S. History
  • World History
  • Writing

Except where noted, content and user contributions on this site are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution required.