Populations with a Small Standard Deviation for a Particular Quantitative

Question

Populations with a small standard deviation for a particular quantitative trait are
A) usually prone to extinction.
B) usually more homozygous for that trait.
C) usually more heterozygous for that trait.
D) not very common.
E) always normally distributed.

Accepted Answer

A small standard deviation indicates that most individuals in the population have similar values for the trait. This could be due to a higher frequency of homozygotes, meaning that the individuals have two copies of the same allele for that trait. In contrast, a larger standard deviation indicates more variation in the population, which could be due to a higher frequency of heterozygotes or different alleles contributing to the trait.