Question

Researchers recently discovered that the diets of young coyotes can affect their biting ability as adults. coyote pups from the same litter were split into two groups: one that gnawed on animal bones (bone-gnawers), and one that was fed exclusively a soft diet similar to canned dog food (non-gnawers). as adults, the bone-gnawers had significantly shorter and wider mouth bones and bigger chewing muscles. they were also able to eat rawhide treats 1.5 times faster than the non-gnawers. if bone-gnawers were only allowed to mate with bone-gnawers and non-gnawers with non-gnawers, what would you expect to find among the offspring?

Answer 1

You would expect to find that as the generations pass, the offspring of the Bone-gnawers would have short, wide mouths and strong chewing muscles. The Non-gnawers would have longer, narrower mouths, and weaker chewing muscles. This is because the offspring would inherit the parent's traits, and this would lead to eventual less genetic diversity as the two groups of coyotes inbred more and more. (Sorry if I went further than needed, just trying to be thorough! I really hope that this helps!)