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Question 01

What is sexual selection?

a) A component of natural selection associated with mating success.

b) Something completely different from and opposed to natural selection.

c) Selection for the ability to mate many times.

d) Choice of which sex to be as a hermaphrodite.

Question 02

What are the two major types of processes involved in sexual selection?

a) Good genes and sexy sons

b) Competition for and choice of mates

c) Anisogamy and sexual dimorphism

d) Leks and harems

Question 03

Which of the following is not a cause of sexual dimorphism?

a) Anisogamy

b) Sexual selection

c) Differences in feeding ecology

d) The Hardy-Weinberg equation

Question 04

Which of the following is not a general reason for choosing a mate?

a) Niche breadth

b) Direct benefits, such as food and protection from predators

c) Good genes, including those conferring resistance to disease

d) Attractive offspring

Question 05

A species with mating types is, from the genetic point of view, like:

a) an asexual species.

b) a species with many sexes.

c) a species with just two sexes, male and female.

d) a simultaneous hermaphrodite.

Question 06

Males and females are defined by what?

a) Their body sizes: males large, females small.

b) The size of their gametes: males small, females large.

c) Their role in mate choice: males compete for mates, females choose mates.

d) Their role in parental care: females care, males leave.

Question 07

Which of the following is not true?

a) Males can potentially have more offspring than females.

b) The limiting sex is the one with the lower reproductive rate.

c) The operational sex ratio limits the potential strength of sexual selection.

d) Females always choose the most beautiful males.

Question 08

Which of the following traits are consequences of sexual selection mediated by competition among males for mates?

a) Larger body size than females and impressive weapons not found in females

b) Striking plumage, like the peacock's tail

c) The morphology of male gonads

d) Feeding efficiency

Question 09

Which mate choice criterion is easiest to observe in action?

a) Good genes

b) Sexy sons

c) Direct benefits, such as food or protection from enemies

d) Sensory bias

Question 10

To demonstrate that females are choosing males based on their possession of genes for disease resistance, which of the following do you not have to demonstrate?

a) That a male's color indicates his genetic composition.

b) That males vary genetically for "disease resistance" genes.

c) That genetic variation in "disease resistance" genes is actually associated with ability to resist disease.

d) That females choose to mate with those males whose genetic composition confers better disease resistance.

Question 11

Which of the following do we not know about extra-pair copulations in blue tits?

a) Females mated to males that are often visited by other females do not themselves often visit other males.

b) The extra-pair offspring of attractive males have better survival rates than their maternal half-sibs.

c) Females mated to unattractive males often visit the territories of attractive males.

d) Attractive males have better survival rates than unattractive males.

Question 12

To measure the co-inheritance of a female preference with a male trait, what should we concentrate on?

a) The heritabilities of both traits (each found in only one sex).

b) The regression of the son's trait on the mother's preference.

c) The regression of the daughter's preference on the father's trait.

d) The correlation of the preferences of daughters with the traits of sons.

Question 13

Why do male tungara frogs pitch their chucks at a certain frequency?

a) That is the frequency that their bat predators cannot hear.

b) That is the frequency that penetrates the greatest distance.

c) That is the frequency that females hear best and prefer.

d) That is the frequency that other frog species use.

Question 14

What does Bateman's principle state?

a) Males display costly signals that advertise their genetic quality.

b) Eggs are expensive but sperm is cheap.

c) Male reproductive success often depends much more than female reproductive success on number of matings per lifetime.

d) Primary sexual characters are not necessarily sexually selected.

Question 15

The greatest difference between the sexes in potential reproductive rate occurs when females are:

a) monogamous, semelparous, and scattered and males are monogamous.

b) polygamous, iteroparous, and clumped and males are semelparous.

c) monogamous and semelparous and males are polygamous and iteroparous.

d) both males and females are polygamous and iteroparous.

Question 16

Which of the following is not correct?

a) Swans are monogamous and sexually monomorphic.

b) Elephant seals are polygynous and sexually dimorphic.

c) Phalaropes are monogamous and sexually dimorphic.

d) Dunnocks are polygynandrous and only slightly sexually dimorphic.

Question 17

What critierion can be used to measure selection for pollen in plants?

a) Variation among flowers in pollination success.

b) Number of pollinators entering a flower.

c) Variation in the rate at which pollen tubes grown through the stigma towards the ovules.

d) Number of flowers per plant and size of flowers.

Question 18

The reasons suggested for anisogamy do not include which of the following ideas?

a) Eggs are specialized perfume factories.

b) Sperm are specialized for swimming long distances and finding stationary eggs.

c) The first anisogamous gametes inherited their morphology from their ancestral mating types.

d) Eggs were selected to be larger to provide more nourishment to offspring before the offspring developed the ability to feed themselves.

Question 19

Bateman's principle is reversed - females having more matings per lifetime than males - in which of the following species?

a) Swans and albatrosses

b) Dunnocks and humans

c) Spotted sandpipers and seahorses

d) Elephant seals and zebras

Question 20

The Fisherian runaway process probablystarted with females choosing:

a) good genes.

b) sexy sons.

c) on the basis of sensory bias.

d) males with impressive weapons.

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 11.

Chapter 11

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