Introduction, Evolution
What is Fitness?
– An organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.
scientific methods: The six basic steps in hypothesis testing
- Observation – male lions kill cubs
- Determine question of interest – why do male lions commit infanticide?
- hypotheses – Males kill infants to get a female to come back into estrus sooner so he can now mate with her.
- Make Predictions (“if…then” statements) – If males kill infants to gain access to females, then the cubs he kills should not be related to him
- Design, conduct and analyze experiments- collect blood samples of cubs and male lions, test paternity
- Evaluate the hypotheses
