BIOB51 EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS VERIFIED LATEST UPDATE

BIOB51 EXAM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS WITH COMPLETE SOLUTIONS VERIFIED LATEST UPDATE Why sex? genetic variation two fold cost of sex slows down rate of reproduction due to reduced reproducing individuasl asexual reproduction should be more abundant if it produces equal no of offspring with equal fitness MUllers ratchet asexual populations will keep accumulating harmful alleles with no way to purge them increasing genetic load genetic load burden due to deleterious mutations Mcdonald differences in how sexual and asexual populations deal with deleterious mutations harmful mutations hitchhike with beneficial mutations and can reach fixation in asexual populations but they get purged from sexual populations red queen effect hosts most keep evolving to survive parasites how the red-queen effect applies to predator-prey relationships prey must keep evolving defenses to survive predators how do new zealand snails show the red queen effect snails in areas with high parasitism tend to be sexual how does the red queen effect make sex beneficial sex allows for the genetic variation that underlies natural evolution and adaptation If natural selection underlies adaptation, why are there exaggerated traits that seemingly decrease survival? because sexual selection favors those traits What is sexual selection? the advantages an individual has to others in the same sex and species as it relates specifically to reproductive success What is the relationship between sexual selection and natural selection? sexual selection is the subset of natural selection that relates specifically to reproduction What were the five main topics gleaned from Darwin's "Descent of Man" book from1871 (i.e. Darwin's dilemma)? parental investment, sexual dimorphism, competition, choosiness, role-reversal What is anisogamy? dissimilar male and female gametes explain how the limitations on reproductive success generally differ between the sexes? females are limited by the number of eggs they can produce since it is so costly to make and males are limited by access to mates what is parental investment the time, energy, and risk that are involved with raising offspring What is meant by uncertain paternity? the probability that an individual is actually the parent of offspring what is the operational sex ratio (OSR)? the ratio of reproducing males to receptive/available females in a population How is it different from the sex-ratio? sex ratio is simply the ration of males to females in a population Why is looking at the OSR important for studies of sexual selection? because it is usually biased towards the sex that is capable of a higher rate of reproduction and sexual selection acts stronger on this sex what is meant by the fundamental asymmetry of sex? this is the difference in reproductive strategies employed by the sexes due to different limiting factors like anisogamy and level of investment What is intrasexual selection? selection on traits that confer reproductive adavantages to others of the same sex What is intersexual selection? selection on traits that improve attractiveness of one sex to the other What is the differences between ornaments and armaments and how do they relate tointrasexual and intersexual selection Ornaments are traits improve male attractiveness to females while armaments are weaponry that allows males to outcompete each other How does the variance in reproductive success influences the strength of sexual selection on males and females?