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MCAT Biology Passage 10: The Musculoskeletal System
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Two independent groups of researchers centered in eastern Colorado were studying the effects of climate change on animal populations. One group was monitoring Canis latrans, the common coyote, and the other was monitoring Cynomys ludovicianus, the black-tailed prairie dog. Eventually they each learned of the other’s work, and they subsequently got together to compare the data that they had both collected over a period of nearly a decade. When the data were correlated and normalized, the following graph was constructed.


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MCAT Biology Passage 10: The Musculoskeletal System
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5 Questions

1. Assuming that average rainfall in inches per year was added to the Y axis, what would that curve most likely look like?
2. What additional information would be most disruptive to the interpretation of these data?
3. Assuming that a correlation exists, what is the most likely explanation?
4. Which is the most likely explanation for the curves represented?
5. Can a correlation between the two data sets be observed?