Answer Happy

Background. Male fiddler crabs have a large claw that is used in mating displays but not for getting food. You manipulate the apparent size of claws by attaching 3D-printed plastic claws to juvenile males, and find females preferentially mate with males only when you give them larger claws than any you find in the natural population. When you fertilize eggs with the sperm of adult males, you find no relationship between the number of surviving offspring, or the health of offspring, and the size of the father's claw. Question: Explain the evolution of males claw size and female preference, given your experiments showing males with larger claws do not produce the healthiest offspring. Edit View Insert Format Tools Table