MCAT Question A Day - 5/8/13 - Answer!
Which male elephant would be the fittest?
A. An individual that fathered five offspring each breeding season and lived through six breeding seasons
B. An individual that fathered three offspring each breeding season and lived through ten breeding seasons
C. An individual that fathered one offspring each breeding season and lived through thirty breeding seasons
D. All of the above
The correct answer is (D). Reproductive fitness is based on an individual’s ability to successfully pass its genes on to future generations, relative to the success of other individuals. Even though choice (A) produced the most offspring each season and choice (C) lived the longest, all three elephants produced thirty offspring and thus were equally “fit.”
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