[Campbell Biology P.549] In the gray tree frog experiment, why was it crucial for researcher... | Practice Question

In the gray tree frog experiment, why was it crucial for researchers to split each female frog's eggs into two batches and fertilize them with sperm from different males one long-calling and one short-calling ?

  • A: To control for maternal genetic effects and shared environmental influences on offspring performance, isolating the male genetic contribution.
  • B: To simply increase the total number of offspring produced in the experiment.
  • C: To observe how male frogs compete for access to female eggs.
  • D: To quickly identify which female frogs were most fertile.
  • D: To quickly identify which female frogs were most fertile.

Explanation

By splitting the eggs from a single female and fertilizing them with sperm from different males, the researchers created half-siblings. This design allowed them to control for any genetic contributions from the mother and shared environmental influences, thus isolating the effect of the male's genetic makeup on offspring performance, which was related to their mating call duration.