[RedBeaconNY]

If each African Antelope produce offspring per individual over an average lifetime of 10 years...

How many offspring?

[Maximus of Texas]

100.

[fanfan]

How many grasshoppers with a wooden leg would it take,
to kick all the seeds out of a dill pickle?

[R. Scott]

If each African Antelope produce offspring per individual over an average lifetime of 10 years, and we have a population that is maintained at 24,000 individuals over time, how many spontaneous non-lethal mutations would enter the gene pool after a period of 1,000 years?"

What is missing is the birthrate. Without that there can be no attempt at an answer.

[Grut]

If each African Antelope produce [5] offspring per individual over an average lifetime of 10 years...

How're they doing this, anyway? Parthogenesis?

[Right Wing Professor]

"Non-lethal mutation rates are usually very low-let's say 1 in a million.

That's not a rate. A rate would be 1 in a million per year, or per generation. What is the time increment?

[faq]

Disclaimer: I'm not qualified in the least to give an expert opinion, but I like these kinds of questions. So here are my thoughts.

Over a period of 1,000 years, at an average population of 24,000 with a 10 year life span, there will have been 2,400,000 antelopes. So the non-lethal mutation rate is 2.4. I don't think the birthrate is important because it says they live an average of 10 years. An average life span of 10 years seems high considering that the number will include those who died at a young age, but the 10 year figure was probably used to simplify the question.

If, however, it is a multiple choice question, I would go with "B".

Let us know the correct answer when you find out.

[Grut]

OK. The population turnover is 24,000 every ten years. So that's 24,000 x 100 in 1000 years, or 2,400,000 individuals born in 1000 years. If the NL mutations amount to 1 per million, then there will be 2.4 mutations.

At least, that's my best guess.

[WhiteGuy]

It's a trick question, there are NO African Antelope!!!!!!

[spunkets]

"Our discussion hinges on whether the birthrate and lifespan are pertinent information."

Only the birthrate matters, because you're given the 24K fixed population. Supercat's answer is right in #20.

[RightWhale]

Just a thought: no mathematics is required in this problem, just some arithmetic. There is not even a differential equation involved, although it would be more interesting if there were.

[carlr]

These things make my head hurt and I will probably make quite a few mistakes here.
A constant of 24,000 reproducing at half their lifespan of ten years would make for 12,000 new offspring/year.Multiply that times 1000 and you end up with 12,000,000.
At that with a 1-1,000,000 mutation rate the answer should be 12.
The problem is that there is no breakdown between male and female numbers as all 24,000 can`t be females.
Without that it is impossible to determine the exact birth numbers.

[MikefromOhio]

12?

[supercat]

BTW, my 1980's biology textbook considered the lifespan of bacteria to be infinite, since once a bacterium has split it can only be said to "die" if both offspring have done so. My personal take was (and remains) that average lifespan computations don't require any knowledge of individual lifetimes; counting the number of dying organisms per unit population will give an answer that is no less meaningful for bacteria than for antelopes (even though a few organisms might survive forever, they form such a small portion of the total number that their effect on the average is limited).