Which term is the measure of variation from the mean of the reproductive potential of one sex compared with the other?

Which term is the measure of variation from the mean of the reproductive potential of one sex compared with the other?

• A. Cladistics
• B. Reproductive potential
• C. Reproductive variance
• D. Biological species concept

Answer: (C)

The main idea here is using a statistic that captures how spread out reproductive success is around its average, and then comparing that spread between the sexes. Reproductive variance does exactly that: it measures how much individuals differ from the mean in the number of offspring they produce. When one sex shows higher variance, it means a few individuals achieve most of the reproductive payoff while others have little or none, which is a common pattern in many species due to mating competition and mate choice. Why this fits: it directly quantifies dispersion in reproductive success, allowing a clear comparison of how variable reproductive potential is between the sexes. In contrast, cladistics is about reconstructing evolutionary relationships, the Biological Species Concept defines what counts as a species, and reproductive potential describes capacity to reproduce without addressing how uneven or distributed that potential is across individuals.

The main idea here is using a statistic that captures how spread out reproductive success is around its average, and then comparing that spread between the sexes. Reproductive variance does exactly that: it measures how much individuals differ from the mean in the number of offspring they produce. When one sex shows higher variance, it means a few individuals achieve most of the reproductive payoff while others have little or none, which is a common pattern in many species due to mating competition and mate choice.

Why this fits: it directly quantifies dispersion in reproductive success, allowing a clear comparison of how variable reproductive potential is between the sexes. In contrast, cladistics is about reconstructing evolutionary relationships, the Biological Species Concept defines what counts as a species, and reproductive potential describes capacity to reproduce without addressing how uneven or distributed that potential is across individuals.