Question

A population of Blue Jays originally lays between 1 and 10 eggs at a time. As the environment changes, more predators arrive, and eat the eggs. Mothers with only a few eggs lose all of them and do not reproduce successfully. At the same time, there is a scarcity of worms, and mothers that lay 10 eggs cannot feed all of them. After a few generations the majority of Blue Jays lays 4-6 eggs only. What type of selection has occurred?

A. Disruptive selection
B. Directional selection .
C. Artificial selection
D. Stabilizing selection

Answer 1

D. Stabilizing selection

Step-by-step explanation:

Stabilizing selection helps to prevent extreme trait characteristics and focuses on the non extreme ones to ensure that such traits are prevalent.

Due to the fact that there isn’t enough food for a large number of the offspring and also the risk of losing all the eggs to those who had a small amount of eggs, stability was achieved after some generations that ensures that there was a balance in ensuring the eggs weren’t too few and too many.