Swordtail fish are known for the long extensions on the males' tails. What types of experiments might help you determine whether the females are using visual input about tail length to choose between males? (Check the best three.)A) Add artificial tails of different lengths to females and determine their response to normal males.B) Add artificial tails of different lengths to male platys (a similar fish without tail extensions) and measure female response.C) Create artificial fish models with different size tails and measure female response.D) Measure hormone levels in males who have different size tails.E) Measure sperm count in males who have different size tails.F) Trim the tails of male fish to different lengths and measure female response.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

B, C, F

Clarify Question
• What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        o How to study sexual selection behaviors in swordtail fish.
• What type of thinking is required?
        o This is an analyze question; you need to break down each answer into its components and decide which are the best choices. You are being asking to choose between a series of experiments concerning mate choice is swordtails. There are 3 correct answers in the set.

Gather Content
• What do you already know about sexual selection behaviors? What other information is related to the question? 
        o This question comes from the section of the textbook that discusses the nature of signals and mate choice. All of the choices would provide some data, but only 3 of the choices deal with the length of the swordtail. The length of a male swordtail is the main visual cue that females use when selecting mates.

Choose Answer
• Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        o Lengthening tails, shortening tails, or using models with varying tail lengths would all be experiments that would provide information about the visual cue that female use to pick mates.

Reflect on Process
• Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
        o Were you able to select the 3 correct choices? The key to this question is to understand that female swordtails use the visual cue of tail length to pick mates.