Male long-tailed widowbirds have unusually long tails, about 20 inches in length, whereas the females have short tails. In an experiment with long-tailed widowbirds, one group of males had their tails clipped to 5 inches, a second group were left with
normal 20-inch tails, and a third group had their tails lengthened to 30 inches by gluing on feathers clipped from the tails of other birds. If sexual selection is responsible for the males having such long tails, predict what will happen when similar numbers of females are placed in the territories of each group of males.
What will be an ideal response?
The males have longer tails because that characteristic was sexually selected for by females. One plausible hypothesis is that, because female preference is for longer tails, the males from the third group with 30-inch tails will attract more females.
You might also like to view...
Double fertilization refers to
(a) fusion of two sperm nuclei and two egg cells. (b) fusion of one sperm nucleus with two polar nuclei and fusion of another with the egg cell nucleus. (c) maturation of the ovary into a fruit. (d) none of the above.
What term is used to indicate a characteristic that is shared and inherited from a common ancestor?
a. homologous trait b. analogous trait c. cladistic trait d. ancestral trait e. derived trait
Which is a monomer?
a. chitin b. cellulose c. amylose d. sucrose e. glucose
What is the nucleus
What will be an ideal response?