question about fitness

[gooperwooper]

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1. a mother gives birth to 2 children, who both reproduce.
2. a mother gives birth to 5 children but only 1 children reproduces.

in which case does the mother have the higher fitness?

 

[Dr.Toothenstein]

Wait for someone to confirm but I believe fitness is defined by offspring who reproduce; going off of memory for course I took last year. 2 reproductive children>1

 

[Mushibachan]

1. a mother gives birth to 2 children, who both reproduce.
2. a mother gives birth to 5 children but only 1 children reproduces.

in which case does the mother have the higher fitness?

depends if its Darwinian fitness or not, but I believe @Dr.Toothenstein is right

 

[changtw]

Agree with @Dr.Toothenstein & @Mushibachan

In this case, fitness depends upon how many of the surviving offspring reproduce. The more offspring that reproduce, the greater the fitness of the parent.

 

[gooperwooper]

thanks guys. What about this scenario?

1. a mother gives birth to 2 children, who both reproduce and produce 2 offspring each.
2. a mother gives birth to 5 children but only 1 children reproduces and produces 10 offspring.

in which case does the mother have the higher fitness?

 

[changtw]

Oh wow, this just got a lot more complicated haha

I'm inclined to side with scenario 1 since there would be more genetic variability having 2 offspring reproducing vs 1 who reproduces and pops them out left and right. Or that perhaps fitness is attributed to how many of the surviving offspring have the ability to reproduce.

Can anyone else confirm/reject? I'm interested in hearing the answer myself.

 

[Mushibachan]

thanks guys. What about this scenario?

1. a mother gives birth to 2 children, who both reproduce and produce 2 offspring each.
2. a mother gives birth to 5 children but only 1 children reproduces and produces 10 offspring.

in which case does the mother have the higher fitness?

is scenario 2 confirmed to be only one father? lol

 

[Mushibachan]

btw, dictionary.com states: the genetic contribution of an individual to the next generation's gene pool relative to the average for the population, usually measured by the number of offspring or close kin that survive to reproductive age.
OR
the ability of an organism to produce viable offspring capable of surviving to the next generation

 

[Mushibachan]

btw, dictionary.com states: the genetic contribution of an individual to the next generation's gene pool relative to the average for the population, usually measured by the number of offspring or close kin that survive to reproductive age.
OR
the ability of an organism to produce viable offspring capable of surviving to the next generation

Shoot, I forgot to add.... I agree with what @changtw said lol b/c I'm assuming that the 4 offspring in scenario 2 did not survive to reproductive age.. I think haha confirm pls...

 

[changtw]

Shoot, I forgot to add.... I agree with what @changtw said lol b/c I'm assuming that the 4 offspring in scenario 2 did not survive to reproductive age.. I think haha confirm pls...

Lol. This second scenario has me like.... "I...am not a smart man..."

 

[Dr.Toothenstein]

thanks guys. What about this scenario?

1. a mother gives birth to 2 children, who both reproduce and produce 2 offspring each.
2. a mother gives birth to 5 children but only 1 children reproduces and produces 10 offspring.

in which case does the mother have the higher fitness?

I believe its #1. We are talking about mothers fitness which in my mind is how many reproductive offspring she produces. #2 is really dealing with her childrens fitness (10 offspring, which might be high fitness but we dont know if they reproduced). In addition, out of 5 offspring she only produced 1 reproductive child; not too good.

There is formulas and other stuff to this; I simply think of it as reproductive offspring; I doubt we'll have a Q more detailed than that. People shouldnt diss CC courses so hard, ive had some pretty legit professors in CC ; I remember our professor tricking us with this same scenario.

 

[Mushibachan]

I believe its #1. We are talking about mothers fitness which in my mind is how many reproductive offspring she produces. #2 is really dealing with her childrens fitness (10 offspring, which might be high fitness but we dont know if they reproduced). In addition, out of 5 offspring she only produced 1 reproductive child; not too good.

There is formulas and other stuff to this; I simply think of it as reproductive offspring; I doubt we'll have a Q more detailed than that. People shouldnt diss CC courses so hard, ive had some pretty legit professors in CC.

WOOHOO we all agree its #1 LOL

 

[changtw]

I believe its #1. We are talking about mothers fitness which in my mind is how many reproductive offspring she produces. #2 is really dealing with her childrens fitness (10 offspring, which might be high fitness but we dont know if they reproduced). In addition, out of 5 offspring she only produced 1 reproductive child; not too good.

There is formulas and other stuff to this; I simply think of it as reproductive offspring; I doubt we'll have a Q more detailed than that. People shouldnt diss CC courses so hard, ive had some pretty legit professors in CC ; I remember our professor tricking us with this same scenario.

Completely agree! Some of my best memories and professor-student interactions were at CC. I remember organismal biology and genchem being comparable in difficulty and quality to university. It was a pleasant surprise.