Question
Biologists assess how closely related similar species are by measuring the number of years since the two species diverged from a common ancestor. Researchers Daniel Bolnick and Thomas Near compared the years since divergence for 12 different pairs of sunfish species to the hatching success of eggs produced by a "cross" between two species. A scatterplot of their results are a shown. A hatching sucéess of 100 means the hybrid eggs hatched as often as single-species eggs hatched. A number below 100 means the hybrid eggs hatch less often. Which of the following is closest to the correlation between these two variables? 0.2 0.7 -0.2 -0.7
Answer
4.3
(236 Votes)
Zachary
Professional · Tutor for 6 years
Answer
Step 1: Understand the question and the data presented. The question is asking for the correlation between the number of years since the division of a pond and the number of hybrid hatching successes. Step 2: Analyze the scatter plot. The scatter plot shows a decrease in the number of hybrid hatching successes as the number of years since the division of the pond increases. This indicates a negative correlation.Step 3: Compare the given options with the observed correlation. The options given are 0.2, 0.7, -0.2, and -0.7. Since we observed a negative correlation, we can eliminate the positive options (0.2 and 0.7).Step 4: Choose the closest negative correlation. Between -0.2 and -0.7, the correlation observed in the scatter plot seems to be strong (as the number of successes decreases significantly with the increase in years), so -0.7 would be the closest correlation.Answer: The correlation between these two variables is closest to
.