In a population of birds, brightly colored males and very dull males survive best. Which type of selection is this, and what is most likely true about the proportion of males of intermediate coloring?
This type of selection is called disruptive selection. In disruptive selection, individuals with extreme traits at both ends of the spectrum are favored while individuals with intermediate traits are selected against.
In this case, the brightly colored males and very dull males are the ones that survive best, meaning the proportion of males with intermediate coloring is likely to decrease over time. This is because individuals with intermediate coloring are less likely to pass on their genes to the next generation, resulting in an increase in the proportion of brightly colored and very dull males in the population.