Evolutionary Biology and Sexual Selection Quiz

Sexual Selection and Conflict in Biology

• Examples of sexual conflict in biology include traumatic insemination in bed bugs, copulatory grasping in waterstriders, and genital coevolution in waterfowl.
• Key texts on sexual selection and conflict include works by Kirkpatrick (1982), Parker (1970, 1979), Prum (1990), and Zahavi (1975).
• The text also includes content related to biology, such as life's chemical basis, cell structure, DNA function, and evidence of evolution.
• The demographic transition model predicts a decline in population during the post-industrial stage.
• The demographic transition model predicts a decline in population during the post-industrial stage.
• The chi-squared statistic is used to measure the difference in mating patterns in a group of elephant seals.
• Selection in biology is a natural phenomenon where nature decides which organisms thrive in the environment.
• Intrasexual selection involves competition among one sex for mating access to the other, while intersexual selection involves mate choice.
• The scenario involving male A emerging triumphant in agonistic behavior and being chosen by a female illustrates both intrasexual and intersexual selection pressures at play in trait selection.
• Sexual selection occurs when one sex has higher fitness, exhibits sexual dimorphism, or when individuals of one sex choose mates from the other sex based on specific traits.
• Male sunfish engaging in sneaker copulation is an example of intrasexual selection, as sneaker males still denied parental males reproductive success through their behavioral strategy.
• The scenario involving male A emerging triumphant in agonistic behavior and being chosen by a female illustrates both intrasexual and intersexual selection pressures at play in trait selection.

Evolutionary Biology and Population Genetics

• Hamilton's rule states that natural selection favors altruistic acts when the benefit to the recipient exceeds the cost to the altruist, corrected for relatedness.
• Male-male competition for mates, also known as intraspecific sexual selection, can lead to the evolution of various sexual traits such as enlarged femurs and mate-guarding behavior.
• Data from a study on black-tailed prairie dogs suggest that alarm calling in females evolved in accordance with kin selection, and males without kin in their home coteries are almost as likely to produce alarm calls as females with kin.
• Sexual selection in male California sea lions is determined by the number of mates they can acquire, with larger territories supporting more females and successful males fasting during mating season to maintain their territories.
• Male deer fight over females to maximize the number of genes they pass on, rather than to determine supremacy or injure other males.
• Natural selection affects allele and genotype frequency by increasing the frequency of advantageous alleles through adaptation.
• An anthropologist discovered a correlation between giving up cannibalism and developing an aversion to grapefruit in Papa New Guinean tribes, linked to the ability to taste bitterness due to a dominant allele.
• In a Papa New Guinean tribe of 637 hens, the frequency of the recessive allele and the number of individuals tasting PTC, heterozygotes, and non-tasters can be calculated.
• In a buffalo herd with 100 mature males and 100 mature females, the effective population size can be determined based on the observed allele frequencies.
• The effective population size is a measure of genetic diversity and is often smaller than the actual population size due to factors such as unequal breeding success.
• Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium can be used to calculate the expected genotype frequencies in the buffalo herd based on the observed allele frequencies.
• The genetic makeup of the buffalo herd can be inferred from the observed frequencies of the fuzzy, shaggy, and rough alleles at the Fuzzy gene locus.