Teaching model: Mechanisms that ensure adaptive behavior

This model is a component of the IUMK (innovative educational-methodological complex) "Ecology. Constructing the Biosphere", developed in 2008 by D. A. Shabanov, A. G. Kozlenko, and M. A. Kravchenko at the request of the NFPK (National Foundation for Training Personnel) of the Russian Federation (more on this project in the article "Innovation and Reality"; the reasons why this complex is not used are briefly described in the column "Textbooks. Straight into the Day After Tomorrow"). This model is posted here for use in the educational process. The model helps establish the relationship between the life history of a given mammal species and the mechanism characteristic of it that ensures adaptive behavior. The theoretical material related to the model is in the section Cultural Inheritance of the manual "Ecology: Biology of Interactions". When the model is opened, a task statement appears in its window. To begin working, you need to click with the mouse on the task window; it can be called up at any time using the corresponding button. Instructions for working with the model are located at the very bottom of its window; if these instructions do not fit in the window, they can be scrolled up and down with the arrows next to them on the right. When working with the model, you need to place four cards depicting specific mammals into four types of life history under specific environmental conditions. The diagram below the cards shows the relative contribution, for the animal species shown, of four mechanisms responsible for the formation of adaptive behavior. To begin, click on the number of one of the four cards. Some tasks that can be solved using the model: 1. Establish the correspondence between organisms and the life histories characteristic of them. 2. Determine which organisms show the most plastic behavior. Which mechanisms provide this plasticity?