You are studying the evolution of tusk length in a population of African elephan

Question

You are studying the evolution of tusk length in a population of African elephants. You make the tusk-length measurements on 4 different families for whom the adults were captured in nature and brought to a zoo where their offspring were born and reared. These values are in the table below. What is th heritability of tusk length in these animals?

Family Mother Father Son Daughter

1 2m 6m 2m 2m

2 9m 11m 6m 4m

3 4m 8m 4m 2m

4 6m 10m 5m 3m

In this same population of elephants, the offspring of 4 other breeding pairs we're orphaned when poachers killed their parents. The parents' tusks were recovered and the offspring were adopted by other families in the same population. You take the measurements of dead parents and offspring after they mature and calculate that h^2 for tusk length is 0.85.

Assume both studies have measured animals that are representative of the population. Give a reasonable explanation for why the h^2 values calculated in the two studies differ even though they are taken from the same population.

gth in a population of African elephants. You make the tusk-length measurements on 4 different families for who re born and reared. These values are in the table below. What the heritability of tusk length in these animals? is Family Mother Father TSon Daughter 2m 6m 2m 2m 9m 11m 6m 4m 4m 8m 4m 10m 3m 6m 5m

Explanation / Answer

X (parents) - 2,9,4,6,6,11,8,10

Y (offsprings) - 2,6,4,5,2,4,2,3

y/x = 0.526316

y=0.526x

Heritability is calculated as 0.526

The heritability in the first case was the slope measured from the regression line prepared from the tusk lengths of Live parents and the offsprings. In the case of heritability of tusk lengths in dead parents and offsprings, the tusk lengths of the nurtured offsprings by the adoptable parents were much higher than that of the dead parents. There was no growth in the tusks of the dead parents. So, the heritability in the second case was higher than the earlier. The tusk lengths of the offsprings were not influenced just by the genetic factors of the parents but, also by the environmental factors.

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