Two biologists observe male fighting behavior in red deer. One biologist suggests the reason for fighting is that dominant males control more females and have higher fitness. The other insists they fight because a seasonal increase in testosterone causes aggressiveness. Who is right? (a real thinker pulling in much of the material from lecture 1 -- constraints, and lecture 2 -- selection, and even a bit on genes).
3. Name and explain two of the three primary ways selection effects the differential fitness of individuals. Draw graphs to represent the changes each mode of selection would be expected to cause in the mean and variance of a population.
4. You overhear someone in the coffee shop citing the following evidence regarding heritability of IQ:
"IQ must be very heritable, the correlation between fraternal twins reared by the same family is 0.68"
"Hah!" the other combatant exclaims, "The correlation between an adopted child and their unrelated sib is 0.29."
5. How does selection on stripped vs spotted snakes, and selection on reversing vs non-reversing escape tactics yield only two kinds of snakes:
Assume one gene controls color, and another controls behavior, shouldn't we see at least four kinds?