Scenario The Collared Lizard Is a Species Found in the Desert

question 43

Multiple Choice

Scenario
The collared lizard is a species found in the Desert Southwest. Male collared lizards show considerable color variation, ranging from brightly colored to a very dull pattern. Your goal is to determine the function, if any, of male color patterns in collared lizards, using the scientific method. Your tentative explanation is that male color plays a role in attracting females for mating purposes. You predict that females will preferentially choose brightly colored males over dull-colored ones. To test your prediction, you observed the interactions of female collared lizards with their male counterparts. You selected males that were the same age and size, and that differed only in their coloration pattern. You placed equal numbers of the two types of male lizards, bright and dull, in aquariums, along with one female lizard per aquarium. Out of 350 aquariums observed, the female chose to mate with the brightly colored male 277 times, and the dull-colored male 70 times. In three instances, the females did not mate with either type.
Create a bar graph of your data, plotting the type of male (dull-or brightly colored) on the x-axis. On the y-axis, plot the frequency with which each type of male was chosen by females. Using this graph
-Dull-colored males were used in this experiment to ________.

• A)serve as a comparison (control)group to the brightly colored males.
• B)be sure that females could recognize the gender of the other lizards.
• C)give the experiment more trials so that the data would be more persuasive.
• D)be sure all females had a male with which they could mate.

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