Social Learning: Required for Culture 1. Female Choice 2. Whale Song 3. Tool Fabrication by Crows 1

Social Learning: Required for Culture 1.Female Choice: interaction of cultural evolution and biological evolution 2.Whale Song: pace of cultural evolution, horizontal transmission 3. New Caledonian Crows: uniqueness of human cultural capacities 2

Female Choice: Shoaling Fish Witte & Noltemeier, Behav Ecol Sociobiol 52:194. Sailfin molly (Poecilia latipinna) Mixed-sex groups (  20 fish); Live-bearing Background female choice Females observe others’ mate choice Socially acquired mate preference? 3

Witte & Noltemeier (2002) Female mate choice - background Genetic/Intrinsic preference: Large males Common, especially parenting males Fish, Birds, Mammals(?) Females – observational (social) learning Copy mate choice of other females 4

Witte & Noltemeier (2002) Mate-choice copying Cultural transmission: impact sexual selection Learn preference Retain, transmit to other females Cultural transmission within sex 5

Witte & Noltemeier (2002) Horizontally transferred cultural trait affects female choice (sexual selection) Might cultural trait oppose (apparent) naturally selected choice behavior? If so, is cultural evolution more important than biological evolution is some species/traits? 6

Witte & Noltemeier (2002) Aquarium tests: Female observes and then chooses First preference test: 2 males, differing in size Second preference test a) Same as first b) Larger male versus smaller male with 2 females for10 min c) with 1 female for 20 min 7

Witte & Noltemeier (2002) a)No change in pref. for smaller male b)Significant increase in pref. for smaller male, after observe 2 females near male c)Significant increase in pref. for smaller male, after observe female near male 8

Witte & Noltemeier (2002) Observation of other females reversed subject females’ innate (genetic?) preference from larger to smaller males Culturally transmitted mating preference apparently reverses effect of female choice on sexual selection among males 9

Whale Song: Rapid Cultural Change Cultural Evolution 3 transmission modes Cultural diversity and pace Horizontal Transmission “Epidemic” – faster than vertical Faster than biological evolution 10

Whale Song: Rapid Cultural Change Noad et al., Nature 408:537. Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Males sing while migrating, breeding Sexual display, male-male &/or attract females Trait diversity (historically): Within-population heterogeneity low Between-population heterogeneity 11

Noad et al. (2000) East, West coast Australia: different populations Very different songs 1996: 2 males moved dispersed west to east Within 2 years: Social mimicry Cultural change, new song common 12

Noad et al. (2000) “Cultural Revolution” 13

Noad et al. (2000) Whale song: language Rapid cultural evolution Faster than biological evolution Timescales 14

Tool Manufacture: Cultural Innovation Distinct Human Cultural Traits 1. Tool use Woodpecker finch, chimps, … 2. Fabrication of tools New Caledonian Crow (Corvus moneduloides) 15

Tool Manufacture: Cultural Innovation Hunt & Gray, Proc Roy Soc Lond B 270:867. New Caledonian Crow Tool manufacture, use Leaf modification, foraging “Technological evolution” via cultural transmission 16

Hunt & Gray (2003) Many animals use tools; prey extraction Tool manufacture rare Technological “evolution” very rare Humans: technological change Faithful social transmission of design Understand function of object (necessary?) 17

Hunt & Gray (2003) Chimps: tool manufacture “haphazard” No evidence of technological evolution Standard: human stone tools Diversification, Intention Suggestion: New Caledonian crows Pandanus leaves, 3 types of foraging tool Cultural transmission/technology evolved 18

A New Caledonian crow pair which exclusively selected either pandanus tools (female at left) or stick tools (male at right). Hunt G R, and Gray R D Biol. Lett. 2007;3: ©2007 by The Royal Society

Hunt & Gray (2003): 3 types of tool 20

Hunt & Gray (2003) Wide, narrow, stepped forms Increasing complexity “manufacture” Vertically transmitted, social learning 21

Hunt & Gray (2003): Site fidelity 22

Hunt & Gray (2003) Cultural innovation & technological evolution 23

New Caledonian Crow (Melhorn et al. 2010; Brain, Behavior and Evolution 75:63) 24

New Caledonian Crow Avian mesopallium No direct sensory input (associative function) Allows “innovative and flexible behavior” Important for learning motor actions in sequence 25

Hunt & Gray (2003) First non-human species “cumulative technology” (?) Crows: recognized social learning capacity technological innovation not solely human trait 26