Question

"All of the following describe real experimental results. One does NOT support the predictions of Hamilton's rule. Which one?

A.Prairie dogs are more likely to give alarm calls to a simulated badger attack if they have kin living nearby.

B.Coots (a kind of bird) have evolved discriminatory mechanisms to detect and reject eggs that are not their own.

C.Twenty percent of ""in-law"" bee-eaters (a different kind of bird) that are not related to other birds at their nest site will help communally raise the young anyway.

D.Wood mouse sperm will sacrifice themselves to assist a ""sibling"" sperm to fertilize an egg."

Answer 1

Option-C

Step-by-step explanation:

Hamilton gave the mathematical expression for the altruistic behaviour or trait in a population which suggested that the alleles for altruistic behaviour will be favoured by the natural selection if BR-C > 0.

The mathematical expression for the altruistic trait is rb> c

where r - relatedness, b- the benefit to recipient and itself also and c-cost to an actor.

In the given question, all the cases meet the condition of Hamilton's rule except one which is the In- law bee-eaters which raise the young near to the nest as the parents who can raise the young ones are not benefited personally from the action of the young as the young one treat them as non-kin. This does not fulfill the condition of the Hamiltons rule.

Thus, Option-C is correct.