Natural selection favouring behaviours that help relatives, explained by Hamilton's rule rb greater than c.
Alleles for helping relatives can spread because relatives share copies. Hamilton's rule: help if r times b is greater than c, where r is relatedness, b the benefit and c the cost. Siblings share r = 0.5.
J.B.S. Haldane joked he would lay down his life for two brothers or eight cousins.
Natural selection favouring behaviours that help relatives, explained by Hamilton's rule rb greater than c.
Kin Selection is one of the 53 topics in Evolution. It is rated Advanced, so it suits learners who want specialist depth. Related topics in this area include Evolution of Sex, Directional Selection, Common Ancestry.
Worker bees help the queen, who is their mother, and sisters share 75 percent of genes due to haplodiploidy.
Work through the Beginner topics in Evolution first, such as Evolution, Natural Selection, Charles Darwin, then return to Kin Selection. Advanced topics assume the Intermediate vocabulary.
The closest topics to Kin Selection are Evolution of Sex, Directional Selection, Common Ancestry, Red Queen Hypothesis. Comparing them side by side is a good way to see how the ideas connect.
Read the summary and the in-depth section, then use the quick check on the interactive lesson for Kin Selection. To practise the whole of Evolution, use the Evolution quiz.
Kin Selection: Natural selection favouring behaviours that help relatives, explained by Hamilton's rule rb greater than c. Evolution of Sex: Hypotheses explain why sexual reproduction persists despite its costs, including the Red Queen and mutation clearance. Read both side by side and note what each one explains.
First, read the summary and write the definition in your own words. Second, read the in-depth section and note any example. Third, compare it with Evolution of Sex and explain the difference aloud. Finally, take the Evolution quiz and come back to this page for any question you miss.
Hypotheses explain why sexual reproduction persists despite its costs, including the Red Queen and mutation clearance.
🦎 EvolutionSelection favouring one extreme phenotype, shifting the population mean in one direction.
🦎 EvolutionAll living things descend from shared ancestors, evidenced by universal DNA and genetic code.
🦎 EvolutionSpecies must constantly evolve just to keep pace with coevolving enemies such as parasites.
🦎 Evolution