The Evolution of Rock Pocket Mice Introduction- People sometimes wonder how organisms get so different from their ancestors. The answer is through their genes. Organisms over generations are always adapting to the environment. They are becoming better fit for survival to reproduce and live. The rock pocket mice were tested under different gene traits and environmental conditions to see what rock pocket mice would survive and reproduce more offspring. The different environments the mice were measured under are the ice age or desert and the different alleles that were tested were color, thickness of fur, and strength of jaw. Brown is dominant to white, normal fur is dominant to thick, and normal strength is dominant to strong. Of course through …show more content…
The population was tested under natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow. The first population started out as 1 BBTTJj, 1 BBTtJJ, 2 BBTtJj, 1 BBTtjj, 1 BBttJj, 1 BbTTJJ, 2 BbTTJj, 1 BbTTjj, 2 BbTtJJ,4 BbTtJj, 2 BbTtjj, 1 BbttJJ, 2 BbttJj, 1 Bbttjj, 1 bbTTJj, 1 bbTtJJ, 2 bbTtJj, 1 bbTtjj, 1 bbttJj. The population then went through an ice age. This means that the brown mice have a greater chance of being spotted and killed. The white mice would have a greater chance of survival because they blend in. Next we had to kill of ½ of our population without thick coat because of natural selection. Now the population was 1 BbttJJ, 1 BbTTjj, 2 BbTtjj, 1 BBTTJj, 1 BbTtJj,1 BBTtjj, 1 bbttJj, 1 BBTtJJ, 1 bbTtjj, 1 bbTtJj, 1 BbTtJJ, 2 BbttJj, 1 Bbttjj, 1 bbTtJJ, 1 BBttJj. Then the population went through predation and they got a new population to start with. The population was 1 BBTtJj, 1 BBTtjj, 1 BBttJj, 1 BBttjj, 1 BbTTJj, 1 BbTTjj,1 BbTtJJ, 3 BbTtJj, 2 BbTtjj, 1 BbttJJ,3 BbttJj, 2 Bbttjj, 1 bbTtJJ, 2 bbTtJj, 1 bbTtjj, 1 bbttJJ, 2 bbttJj, 1 bbttjj. That population then underwent a forest fire that randomly killed off half of the population. The population after the fire was 2 BbTtJj, 1 bbTtjj, 1 bbttjj, 1 BbttJj, 2 bbttJj,2 BbTtjj, 2 Bbttjj, 2 bbTtjj. That population went through 10% of all organisms leaving due to greener pastures. The population then turned out to be 2 Bbttjj, 1 bbttjj, 1 bbTtjj, 2 BbTtjj, 2 bbttJj, 1 BbttJj, 1 bbTtJj. Next, after predation happened, a few more organisms died but then we got a new population through the carrying capacity calculations that brought it back up to 30 mice. The new population then went through a few more obstacles like no rain, a hot summer and organisms coming in to end with the population, 3 BbTtjj, 1 Bbttjj, 3 bbTTjj, 1 bbTtJj, 9 bbTtjj, 8 bbttjj, 1 BbttJJ, 1 BBTtJj, 1 BBTTJJ, 1
Biological evolution is a change in the characteristics of living organisms over generations (Scott, 2017). A basic mechanism of evolution, the genetic drift, and mutation is natural selection. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, natural selection is a process in nature in which only the organisms best adapted to their environmental surroundings have a higher chance of surviving and transmitting their genetic characters in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated. There has been many experimental research projects that relate to the topic of natural selection and evolution.
Have you ever heard of a British scientist named Charles Darwin? He is the one who developed the theory of evolution. He also had a little motto, “survival of the fittest”, which means that natural selection chooses those best adapted to their environment to live. Those who survive reproduce and have new babies with the gene to survive in the environment, unless something changes. With that mentioned, certain traits are more common in a population because the traits increase an individual’s probability of surviving and reproducing in its environment. Evidence includes male peacocks with their colorful tails, Hawaii climbing gobies, and rock pocket mice.
According to Klug, &Ward (2009), members of a certain population from another are distinguished by the presence of unique genetic characteristics. It is believed that large populations have greater diversity of alleles, compared to the small populations. In most cases, the diversity of alleles designates a greater potential for any evolution of new genes combination. This also shows greater capacity for evolution in adapting different environmental condition. On the other hand, individuals in small populations are possible to be hereditarily, anatomically as well physiologically more consistently than in large populations.
The second of Tinbergen’s questions Phylogeny looks at the evolutionary explanations of development, as opposed to just how behaviour has adapted, including mutations in response to environmental changes. Some of these mutations remain in species even after necessity has gone, and can influence future characteristics of that species. The third of Tinbergen’s questions looks at Causation,...
Natural selection is associated with the phrase “survival of the fittest.” This basically means that the fittest individuals can not only survive, but are also able to leave the most offspring. The selection of phenotypes affects the genotypes. For example, if tall pea plants are favored in the environment, then the tall pea plants would leave more offspring behind, meaning that the offspring will carry tall alleles. Phenotypes that are successful have the best adaptations (characteristics that help an individual to survive and reproduce) to their environment. These adaptation arise from the interactions with living and nonliving aspects of the environment. Some nonliving aspects of the environment are climate, water availability, and concentration of mineral sin the
Evolution in general, is a hard concept to grasp. There are multiple factors that effect the outcome a species, for example: genetics, nurture, nature, and the environment all play an important role. It was once said that species do not survive due to the fact that they are the strongest or the most intelligent, but because that species is the most responsive to change.
1These two populations are different species because they have different capabilities of performing in nature. For example there is behavioral isolation. My evidence for that is that in the data, it states that the average time spent in courtship display for the St. Kitts rodent is 12.6 seconds. While the courtship display for the Nevis Rodent is 21.3. You can see that there is a major difference in the way that they behave. Also there is another type of isolation which is gametic isolation. There is gametic isolation because the average gestation time for St. Kitts rodent is 29.3 days. The average gestation for the Nevis rodent is 42.7 days. Therefore a sperm from St. Kitts rodent wouldn’t survive in the reproductive tract of the Nevis rodent. It wouldn’t survive because it wouldn’t develop properly and is not accustomed to its environment. There is also another type of isolation happening with the rodents of St. Kitts. This type of isolation is called temporal isolation. There is temporal isolation because the article states, “the reproductive seasons are being delayed by up to one year.” This is talking about that the rodents are having a hard time finding mates therefore, their reproductive season is being delayed. Also in the article it states, “In the 240 attempts to bring a Nevis animal into the St. Kitts population, you are unable to observe a single successful reproductive event.” The rodents are mechanically isolated, because if you can’t have a reproductive event, there reproductive organs might not be matching with one another. Their appearance might look identical but they are genetically different.
The second condition of natural selection evolution involves the Honey Badgers heritability of its complex traits (Phelan, 2010). Honey Badgers have been able to maintain their presence and dominant nature within their habitats as a result of successfully transmitting traits from parent to child. As can seen from Honey Badgers consistent size and cognitive abilities, the animal is capable of genetically passing it successful traits.
With the studies that Charles Darwin obtained he published his first work, “The Origin of Species.” In this book he explained how for millions of years animals, and plants have evolved to better help their existence. Darwin reasoned that these living things had gradually changed over time to help themselves. The changes that he found seemed to have been during the process of reproduction. The traits which would help them survive became a dominant trait, while the weaker traits became recessive. A good example of what Darwin was trying to explain is shown in giraffes. Long-necked giraffes could reach the food on the trees, while the short-necked giraffes couldn’t. Since long necks helped the giraffes eat, short-necked giraffes died off from hunger. Because of this long-necks became a dominant trait in giraffes. This is what Charles Darwin would later call natural selection.
According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.
AGenetic Drift is the variation in a population’s allele frequencies from one generation to the next as a result of chance events. Genetic Drift may cause some genes to disappear, and overall reducing the genetic variation in a certain population. There are two types of Genetic Drift: Bottleneck Effect and Founder Effect . An example of Genetic Drift would be the American Bison, which suffered a huge reduction in population numbers, after succumbing to the bottleneck effect . Due to the quick killings of the Bison, many alleles died with their carriers, and genetic variation decreased exponentially. The American Bison has been gaining numbers in the past couple decades but the genetic variation amongst the different animals is very small. Another example of Genetic Drift would be that of the Northern elephant seals. Also being the target of hunters, the N.Elephant seals population reduced to a shocking 20 individuals at the end of the 19th century . Even though their population is steadily increasing, their genes still carry the effects of the bottleneck. They N. Elephant
Many scientists in the past, such as Aristotle and Plato, believed that there were no changes in populations; however, other scientists, such as Darwin and Wallace, arose and argued that species inherit heritable traits from common ancestors and environmental forces drives out certain heritable traits that makes the species better suited to survive or be more “fit” for that environment. Therefore, species do change over a period of time and they were able to support their theory by showing that evolution does occur. There were four basic mechanisms of evolution in their theory: mutation, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection. Natural selection is the gradual process by which heritable traits that makes it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce increases, whereas there is a decline in those who do have those beneficial heritable traits (Natural Selection). For example, there is a decrease in rain which causes a drought in the finches’ environment. The seeds in the finches’ environment would not be soft enough for the smaller and weaker beak finches to break; therefore, they cannot compete with the larger and stronger beak finches for food. The larger and stronger beak finches has a heritable trait that helps them survive and reproduce better than others for that particular environment which makes them categorized under natural selection (Freeman, 2002).
The next type of adaptation is also genetic, but does not involve the changing of the genes themselves, but rather how they are expressed. Because humans possess a remarkable amount of ‘genetic plasticity’, developmental adjustments can occur by turning particular genes on or off to adapt to the current environmental conditions at birth and through adolescence.
We can see evolution in action everywhere we look, because through natural selection, all living things have been prosperous or killed off based on their environment. That is the beauty of natural selection; a mutation occurs in an animal and if it is beneficial, the animal prospers and passes on its traits to the next generation (Green, 2012). The polar bear was just a brown bear living in a snowy environment until a mutation occurred in one bear’s DNA that caused its fur to be white. This helped the bear blend in the snow when hunting, so the trait was passed on from generation to generation, until all brown bears in the area were all killed off, and only polar bears remained. Evolution doesn’t create new features; it takes mutations that
Natural selection is based on the concept “survival of the fittest” where the most favourable individual best suited in the environment survive and pass on their genes for the next generation. Those individual who are less suited to the environment will die.