There is a female snail living in a population of ca. 25000 snails in a mangrove

Question

There is a female snail living in a population of ca. 25000 snails in a mangrove forest. Two mutations occur in this snail. One mutation occurs in the olfactory lobes of her brain, making her more sensitive to the location of food. Her improved ability to find food increases her lifetime fitness by 100% (i.e., doubles the number of offspring she has/) This mutation reduces the metabolic cost of producing mucus and increases the lifetime fitness of an individual by 2% However, because this mutation occured in one of her eggs and not in mucosal gland. the female in question gained no benefit to her mucosal production. Which of these mutations is more likely to have a long-term effect on the evolution of this population? You may also anser that the long-term effects are probobly equal or that neither mutation will have an effect. Breifly expalin your reasoning.

Explanation / Answer

The Fitness of an organism depends on its ability to survive & Reproduce Successfully in an environment. the Reproducing ability can be observed by the Number of Offsprings it produced,In this case first mutation wich occurred in the olfactory lobes of brain is more likely to have a long-term effect because it increased the Number of Offsprings produced by the female and also the lifetime of the female by 100 % wich means it can produce double number of offsprings in this time and if this mutation is carried(passed) on to the next generations.Then we can assume that this mutation is more likely to have a long-term evolution of the snail's population.

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