首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the bird world. Mother zebra finches have to work hard
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the bird world. Mother zebra finches have to work hard
admin
2011-01-10
48
问题
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the bird world. Mother zebra finches have to work harder and raise fewer chicks on their own, but they also produce more attractive sons who are more likely to get a mate.
The finding shows that family conflict is as important an evolutionary driving force as ecological factors such as hunting and food supply. With two parents around, there’s always a conflict of interests, which can have a detrimental effect on the quality of the offspring.
In evolutionary terms, the best strategy for any parent in the animal world is to find someone else to care for their offspring, so they can concentrate on breeding again. So it’s normal for parents to try to pass the buck to each other. But Ian Hartley from the University of Lancaster and his team wondered how families solve this conflict, and how the conflict itself affects the offspring.
To find out, they measured how much effort zebra finch parents put into raising their babies. They compared single females with pairs, by monitoring the amount of food each parent collected, and removing or adding chicks so that each pair of birds was raising four chicks, and each single mum had two--supposedly the same amount of work.
But single mums, they found, put in about 25 percent more effort than females rearing with their mate. To avoid being exploited, mothers with a partner hold back from working too hard if the father is being lazy, and it’s the chicks that pay the price. "The offspring suffer some of the cost of this conflict," says Hartley.
The cost does not show in any obvious decrease in size or weight, but in how attractive they are to the opposite sex. When the chicks were mature, the researchers tested the "fitness" of the male offspring by offering females their choice of partner. Those males reared by single mums were chosen more often than those from two-parent families.
Sexual conflict has long been thought to affect the quality of care given to offspring, says zoologist Rebecca Kilner at Cambridge University, who works on conflict of parents in birds. "But the experimental evidence is not great. The breakthrough here is showing it empirically."
More surprising, says Kilner, is Hartley’s statement that conflict may be a strong influence on the evolution of behaviour, clutch size and even appearance. "People have not really made that link," says Hartley. A female’s reproductive strategy is usually thought to be affected by hunting and food supply. Kilner says conflict of parents should now be taken into account as well.
With which of the following statements would the author probably agree?
选项
A、Single mums produce stronger sons.
B、Single mums do not produce daughters.
C、Two-parent families produce less attractive children.
D、Two-parent families produce more beautiful offspring.
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/cHQYFFFM
本试题收录于:
NAETI中级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI中级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
Byusingnewforeigntextbooks,wecouldnotonlylearntherightexpressionofbusinessideas,butalsowewillknowthelastes
Theysaidthattheyhadmadeuptheirmindsto______thetaskinspiteoftheextremelydifficultconditions.
Norevolutionsintechnologyhaveasvisiblymarkedthehumanconditionasthoseintransport.Movinggoodsandpeople,theyhav
Norevolutionsintechnologyhaveasvisiblymarkedthehumanconditionasthoseintransport.Movinggoodsandpeople,theyhav
Everygrouphasaculture,howeveruncivilizeditmayseemtous.Totheprofessionalanthropologist,thereisnointrinsicsupe
Thevoterswereoverwhelminglyagainstthecandidatehisproposalscalledforhighertaxes.
Peterwasseencryingwhenhecameoutoftheoffice.Wecandeducethathemusthavebeenpunished.
Intheadvancedcourseofourtraining,studentsmusttakeobjectivetestsatmonthly
Inthecourseofpreparinghisspeech,heshouldbeclearlyawareofhowtomakeeffectiveuseofstatisticsandexamplesto____
如果你认为多媒体只是可以在家中单独享用的东西,你应该再想一想。银行处在“信息高速公路”的前沿,因为它们对这种技术比任何其他类型的民用企业投资更多。以资产在美国银行中排列第四的摩根公司为例。它开发了一种系统,借助一支电子笔就能在计算机屏幕上快速完成
随机试题
老年人有老年人的意愿需要表达,有老年人的利益需要维护,有老年人的作用需要发挥。因此,()是老年人的重要需求。
A.胀痛B.灼痛C.刺痛D.隐痛肝火上炎所致头痛是
二尖瓣关闭不全可出现
有害物质的检查主要包括
社会环境由()组成的。
锤击沉桩的控制应根据()综合考虑。
根据契税法律制度的规定,下列各项中,不征收契税的有( )。
在教学中不断变换同类事物的非本质属性,以便突出本质属性的方法称为()
下列属于主物与从物关系的是()。
______isthewrittenformofBeowulf.
最新回复
(
0
)