Suppose that a male with a beak depth of 10 mm mated with a female with a beak depth of 8 mm. What would the expected beak depth of the offspring be? Would it matter if the female’s beak was 10 mm and the male’s 6 mm?
To determine: The expected beak depth of the offspring produced by the mating of males with beak depth of 10 mm and female with beak depth of 8 mm. The effect on the beak size of offspring if the female’s beak was 10 mm and male’s 6mm.
Introduction: The variety of processes can lead to evolutionary change in an organism. The English naturalist, Charles Darwin, proposed the Darwinian theory of biological evolution by natural selection, which is accepted by most of the evolutionary biologists.
Explanation of Solution
Darwin’s finches are an example of evolution by natural selection. Darwin observed that the species of the finches were closely related and similar to each other except for their beaks. Darwin also observed that the difference between the beak sizes had evolved the adaption of various species to use different food resources.
Some species of finches feed on small tender seeds, but due to depletion of these seeds, the birds resort to larger and hard seeds. The large seeds were consumed by the birds with shorter, more profound, and more powerful beaks and survived better, whereas when the plants bear an abundance of small seeds, the birds with long and shallow beaks survived better. The depth of the beaks of parents is similar to the offspring. The mean of parents' beak depth will be 9mm, so the beak depth of the offspring will be approximately 9mm.
The depth of the beak does not depend on the sex of the parent. However, some points scatter close to the line of regression, which suggests that sex of the parent does not affect the beak depth of the offspring.
Want to see more full solutions like this?
Chapter 21 Solutions
BIOLOGY
- Why is it more difficult to determine the sex of a newlyhatched canary than a newborn puppy?arrow_forwardHow large is feral cat compare to domestic cats in sizes such as height, length and weight? If main coon were born feral Will it be larger then normal size main coon?arrow_forwardYou’re conducting a science experiment and notice that fruit flies with rounded wings produced more offspring. What does this suggest about rounded wings?arrow_forward
- In snouters, mucus color to catch prey shows incomplete dominance. Red mucus color is dominant to yellow mucus color. What kind of offspring could result from snouter parent 1 being homozygous dominant and snouter parent 2 having orange mucus?arrow_forwardWhat behavioral trait(s) prevents interbreeding between different finch species?arrow_forwardWith your knowledge of sexual selection theory, can you formulate a hypothesis that explains why female courtship might have evolved in this species? Is there anything about pipefish biology that might support your hypothesis?arrow_forward
- Is sexual selection or natural selection the driver for the differences between males and females? a. In the hollyhock weevil (Rhopalapion longirostre) the females a have much longer rostrum. The length of rostrum is correlated with offspring survival but not mating frequency. b. In the marine iguana species (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) on the islands near Ecuador the males often exceed expected size on a given island. Male size is correlated with survival and number of mating events.arrow_forwardPolygyny is a common mating system in nature. Which one of the following scenarios is LEAST likely to result in a polygynous mating system? Male stalk-eyed flies form leks where receptive females come visit Male Neotropical giant damselfly defend water-filled tree holes, which are the oviposition sites for females. Suitable tree holes for oviposition are rare and females must mate with the resident male in exchange for access to the oviposition sites. Male Bengal tigers defend large territories that contain food sources. Female Bengal tigers visit male territories to mate. The density of the Bengal tiger is extremely low that male tigers rarely encounter more than one female in their lifetime. In the bumblebee-wolf Philanthus bicinctus, females are unreceptive until they finish constructing the long underground burrow as nest sites. Males search for locations containing a number of newly constructed burrows and attempt to control these sites against the intruders. Your cousin Peter…arrow_forwardWhich statement below is FALSE regarding the differences between sea urchin and mammals? Select an answer and submit. For keyboard navigation, use the up/down arrow keys to select an answer. a External fertilization is observed in sea urchins, whereas internal fertilization is used in mammals. External fertilization is observed in mammals, whereas internal fertilization is used in sea urchins. Urchins produce thousands of eggs, whereas humans produce only one egg that when fertilized becomes a zygote. Once sea urchins release their gametes, they move on to feeding on other normal activities and do not worry about their progeny at all. Unanswered A Submitarrow_forward
- In a study in which men and women were asked to sit at a computer and navigate through a virtual maze, the men were able to complete the task more quickly and with fewer errors over five trials than the women (Moffat et al. 1998). What possible proximate developmental mechanisms might be responsible for this sex difference in navigational ability? Use the evolutionary explanation for sex differences in spatial learning ability by voles to make a prediction about the nature of human mating systems over evolutionary time.arrow_forwardHow is the sex-determination mechanism different in the birds?arrow_forwardFemale mimicry by males occurs in many species. For example, in the Broadley’s flat lizard (Platysaurus broadleyi), some males have the brown coloration of females while others are far more colorful (Whiting et al. 2009). Female mimics do secure some matings in the territories of their larger, more colorful rivals. Why are the bigger males (and those of the marine isopod Paracerceis sculpta) ever fooled into tolerating a female mimic? Why do female mimics occur in any species if the mating success of these individuals is lower than that of the bigger territorial males? Don't write from any online source..arrow_forward
- Biology Today and Tomorrow without Physiology (Mi...BiologyISBN:9781305117396Author:Cecie Starr, Christine Evers, Lisa StarrPublisher:Cengage Learning