Blue-Footed Boobies Have Webbed Feet and Are Comically Clumsy When

question 34

Multiple Choice

Blue-footed boobies have webbed feet and are comically clumsy when they walk on land. Evolutionary scientists view these feet as

• A) an example of a trait that is poorly adapted.
• B) the outcome of a trade-off: Webbed feet perform poorly on land but are very helpful in diving for food.
• C) an example of a trait that has not evolved.
• D) a curiosity that has little to teach us regarding evolution.

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Definitions:

Heteroscedasticity

A condition in regression analysis where the variance of the error terms is not constant across all levels of the independent variables, violating uniform variance assumptions of ordinary least squares regression.

Homoscedasticity

A condition in regression analysis where the variance of error terms (residuals) is constant across all levels of an independent variable.

Variance

A metric that quantifies the variability or distribution range of a data set, determined by the mean of the squared deviations from the mean value.

Residuals

Differences between observed values and the values predicted by a statistical model, indicating the error in predictions.