Question

1. A geographic barrier separates two populations within a species over a period of several thousand years, during which time the populations are genetically isolated. The geographic barrier disappears and the two populations come into contact and hybridize. Predict the outcome if:
   1. The hybrid offspring have less biological fitness than their parents.

b.The hybrid offspring have greater biological fitness than their parents

Answer 1

Biological fitness is defined as the number of offsprings the parents can produce in a given time. Basically it can be interpreted as, the more the number of offsprings produced by a parent, the greater is its biological fitness and vice versa.

In the question hybrid population is being produced as a result of disappearance of geographic barrier.

a. If the hybrid offspring have less biological fitness than their parents, the hybrids will decline over a period of time and the genetically isolated offsprings will be more.

b. If the hybrid offspring have greater biological fitnes than their parents, then the hybrid population will increase over a period of time and the parental population will decrease.

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