Two species of fruit fly found on the island of Melanesia are morphologically indistinguishable.  The two species share habitats but rarely interbreed in the wild. Males of both species court females from both species, but the females have a strong preference for the courting display of males of their own species. Based on this information, fruit fly courtship would be considered a form of , which occurs .

Based on the biological definition of sex, what is the single character that distinguishes females from males?

Which statement is true about sexual selection?

______________ are thought to be a major explanation for rapid macroevolutionary change observed in the fossil record (i.e., patterns of punctuated equilibrium).

In a species of mice, one gene with two incompletely dominant alleles (B, b) influences coat color: BB individuals are blackBb individuals are brownbb individuals are white Researchers studying an isolated population of these mice counted 150 black mice, 100 brown mice, and 250 white mice. Using this information, answer the following questions. What is the frequency of observed genotypes?  What is the frequency of the b allele? Based on their observations, the researcher concluded that the coat color gene in this mouse population…  

This phylogenetic tree depicts the evolutionary relationships of eight major vertebrate classes.  Tiktaalik is an intermediate fossil that represents an early ancestor of all tetrapods. Specifically, Tiktaalik is known for its wrist, a key feature of the tetrapod limb that made it possible for which major evolutionary transition in animals? If you were to add Tiktaalik to this phylogeny, where would the Tiktaalik branch extend from?

Which statement is true about sexual selection?

Australian Marsupials have been geographically isolated from Placental mammals for ~50 million years. In that time, many species in both groups have independently evolved the same adaptations via convergent evolution. The analogous adaptations observed in Placental mammals and Marsupials are best explained by…

The presence of altruistic behavior in some animals can be explained by kin selection, a theory that maintains that…

Prior to European colonization, tens of thousands of whooping cranes lived in North America. By 1938, due to overexploitation and habitat loss, whooping cranes were virtually extinct, with a total population of only 15 individuals. Since then, careful conservation efforts have increased the North American whooping crane population to over 800 today. From a genetic standpoint, as a result of this catastrophe, whooping cranes experienced a “population bottleneck”, which is a severe form of . The current population of whooping cranes should be expected to have , relative to the pre-colonial population.