首页
登录
职称英语
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the
Single mums are better at raising their kids than two parents—at least in the
游客
2023-12-24
41
管理
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. [br] According to Hartley, which of the following is NOT influenced by sexual conflict?
选项
A、The evolution of the offspring’s behaviour.
B、The look of the offspring’s faces.
C、The number of eggs produced by one offspring at a time.
D、The offspring’s body size.
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3299932.html
相关试题推荐
SoleParentSupport(forsingleparentswhoseyoungestchildisunder14years)
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Asthenewgenerationofparents,millennialsrelymuchontheInternetforinfo
Organicfoodisconsideredbetterthanmedicinetokeeppeoplespiritualfitness
随机试题
(1)Aspecterishauntingworkers—theriseofartificialintelligence(AI).
Thesubjectofthislectureishorology,thescienceofmeasuringtime.The【
肾上腺脑白质营养不良的生化代谢特点是A.血浆中极长链脂肪酸异常增高 B.β-半
下列各项中,属于运用横向比较法的有()。 Ⅰ.将甲公司去年与今年的销售
自1984年1月1日起,中国人民银行开始专门行使中央银行的职能,所承担的工商信贷
三绕组降压变压器绕组由里向外的排列顺序是()。 (A)高压、中压、低压;
20世纪50年代末,以美国教育家布鲁纳为代表提出来的课程理论是()。A.学
根据反垄断法律制度的规定,市场支配地位是指经营者在相关市场内具有能够控制商品价格
低压配电宜采用放射式配电的条件是()。A.用电设备容量大;B负荷性质重要;
电站锅炉中的锅是由汽包以及()等组成。A.再热器 B.预热器 C.省煤器
最新回复
(
0
)