Mechanisms for recognizing kin are found throughout the plant and animal kingdoms, regardless of an organism's social or mental complexity. ████████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████████ ██████ ██ ████ ███
Phenomenon ·Many plants and animals can recognize "kin" (relatives)
Inclusive fitness hypothesis ·Organisms transmit genetic material through relatives (not just offspring)
Contrast inclusive fitness with traditional view of evolution. Under traditional view, natural selection favors those with the most offspring. Inclusive fitness suggests natural selection also favors organisms who help their relatives (because this helps spread the organism's own genes).
Example of theory applied to cannibals ·Spadefood toad tadpoles
Some tadpoles eat their own species. But they nip at other tadpoles before eating, and end up eating only nonsiblings. Suggests they're trying to avoid eating their kin. But, they're more likely to eat kin when they're very hungry.
Example showing other explanation ·Tiger salamander larva
Some larva are cannibals. The bacteria are more deadly to close relatives, because the relatives have a similar immune system to the infected larva. So, when tiger salamanders avoid eating their close relatives, it could be because they just don't want to die from the bacteria in their relatives. This is about the organism's individual self-interest, not about trying to increase overall genetic representation.
The mechanism by which the tadpoles recognize their kin is described in the middle of P2: “The cannibals have a procedure of discrimination whereby they nip at other tadpoles, eating nonsiblings but releasing siblings unharmed.”
a
It is not █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██ ██████ █████
Supported. The procedure involves nipping (meaning putting part of the other tadpole in one’s mouth). This is a non-visual way of determining whether another tadpole is one’s sibling.
b
It is neither ████████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████████
Not supported, because we don’t know whether non-cannibal tadpoles nip other tadpoles. It’s possible some non-cannibal tadpoles have the ability to nip other tadpoles and to determine whether they are siblings.
c
It does not ██████ █████ █ ███████ ██ ███████████ ███ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ █████████
Not supported, because we don’t know that the technique isn’t 100% successful at determining whether the other tadpoles are siblings.
d
It is rendered ███████████ ██ █████████████ ███████ ████████████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██████████████ ██ ████████████████
Not supported, because we’re told that the cannibals do in fact nip at other tadpoles to determine whether they are siblings. We have no reason to think that the behavior is unnecessary.
e
It could not ████ █████████ ██ █ ███████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███████████
Not supported, because we have no information about what would cause the nipping behavior not to develop. Maybe in some species that are omnivores, some animals are still cannibals and would nip to determine whether other members of their species are siblings.
Difficulty
68% of people who answer get this correct
This is a difficult question.
It is slightly harder than the average question in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%146
156
75%166
Analysis
Implied
Phenomenon-hypothesis
Science
Single position
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
68%
166
b
14%
161
c
6%
159
d
4%
155
e
7%
160
Question history
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