Natural Selection Lab Report

The Evolution Lab simulates environmental situations to determine effects on evolution over periods of time. This lab experiments with the evolution of finches on two different islands over 100, 200, and 300 years. By manipulating parameters that influence natural selection, the effects that natural selection have on the evolution process can be studied.

The purpose of the lab was to see what color bead bug would survive the longest in the environment. By performing the experiment, natural selection was being tested. Natural selection is when organisms that are most suited to the environment survive and reproduce more successfully. Certain colored bead bugs would survive longer, because they blended in. The bead bugs that are a more prominent color stood out more and were eaten right away. This experiment displays how the population of bead bugs changes over the generations, due to the amount being eaten and the amount of bead bugs that were reproduced.

Charles Darwin first suggested how evolution occurs in the natural selection process. Natural selection is the survival and reproduction of individuals with different phenotypes resulting in interactions with the environment. Genetic drift and gene flow can contribute to evolution too. Genetic drift is a random change in allele frequencies of a population. Gene flow is the movement of alleles between two or more populations. This is how populations evolve. In this lab, I completed an activity about Darwinian snails. A biologist named Robin Seeley suspected that New England’s periwinkle snail population was evolving due to predation by green crabs and she compared the old shells of these snails to the new ones. Robin Seeley recorded her results from the shell measurements to find the difference. It turned out that the range in shell thickness was different from 1980 and 1871. We completed a simulation online about the Darwinian snail population and the green crab population. This lab taught me the roles of mutations in introducing new genetic variation within a population! Populations evolve by the means of natural selection. I now understand the role of genetic variation, inheritance, and selection the evolution of a population. Being aware of the great diversity of living things on earth is just as important as knowing the long process of evolution. This lab was more than worth

The main purpose of this lab was to utilize the infamous Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium equation to predict the evolutionary modifications a certain species (Drosophila melanogaster) displayed throughout different generations. For this experiment to be carried out, Drosophila melanogaster, also known as fruit flies, were used to visually represent evolutionary conceptions such as Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium equation. At the beginning of the experiment, the parent generation was observed first. Throughout the course of seven weeks, the vial was analyzed for certain changes between the two populations of Drosophila melanogaster; wild type and ebony. Although the genotypes could not be figured out, the flies were evaluated and observed based on

The Peppered moth is an example of modern-day natural selections since due to the environmental changes that occurred in the nineteenth century, the black wing moths were more suited to the new environment changes. Due to this, the black wing trait became more common in succeeding generations while the white with black speckles trait became less and less common among the population. This is a clear example of natural selection or the survival of the fittest.

Evolution is the process of biological change by which descendants come to differ from their ancestors. Natural Selection is when an individual with the best trait survive and breed in more population. Larger populations of organisms with the desired traits will then occur and organisms will evolve. The four principles of Natural Selection are variation, over production, adaptation, and descent with modification. Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist saw two major trends within organisms which were variation and adaptation. Variations are differences in individuals’ physical traits compared to other individuals. In the Galapagos Islands Darwin noticed that finches had different beak sizes and shapes. Darwin then concluded that finches with thicker beaks lived in areas where nuts were the main food source and finches with smaller beaks tended to live in areas where insects were the main food source. Adaptation are features that allow an organism to better survive in their environment. There has been many adaptations in animals but one of the best has been living in groups because animals can then “help each other find food, defend against predators and care for their young” (animalpanet, n.d.). Overproduction is when organisms produce more offspring than the environment can support. Darwin stated that all animals over produce since offspring can reach reproduction age and have offspring of their own. For example, “even a slow breeder

This lab is a fundamental example of Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection because it clearly shows the changes in population that were created because of traits that were considered to be the most advantageous in certain environments. These desired traits were then passed down to subsequent generations leading to a change in the overall genotype and phenotype frequencies of the population. This lab investigation also demonstrated the importance of environment in the role of natural selection. If the brown snails that lived in the grassy field had moved to a different location or had the environment changed, such as the grass in the habitat dying and turning brown, then their survival rates would have been much different.

Biological fitness is fundamental to the evolution of species. It is defined both by survival and reproductive success, determined by the contribution to the gene pool of the next generation. Accordingly, the individual that lives the longest and produces the most fertile offspring has the highest fitness. Fitness is hereditary, genetically based, and phenotypically expressed. Natural selection acts on the translation of phenotypic trait variation to maximize performance, to improve and protect the highest fitness state and allow it to go towards fixation. The modification in the genetic makeup of a population over time correlates with an increased average fitness. However, evolution is not linear. Every behavior, every feature

Without the ability to regulate how much reactant is used the beetle would waste energy with continual spraying and no way to stop. Without the ability of the abdomen to flex the beetle could not contain the heat and the explosion created, and would die from the inside out. Albeit, some predators get the upper hand the beetles’ have also found a way to aim their spray, allowing protection from every direction. The beetles have definitely adapted to survive through tough conditions, and have formed extremely specialized methods in to accomplish this survival. All of the other research articles found backed up the data from the first article and show that the bombardier beetle really is evolutionarily advanced. The ability to contain this reaction, spray with accuracy, control the amount of reactant used, and control when to spray or not shows this evolution first

Charles Darwin discovered and developed this evolutionary mechanism called natural selection. It basically stated that if there existed variation in population there would be a struggle of survival. Darwin meant that those traits that were the most fit would be passed on to the next generation more often.

The simulation accurately demonstrates the variation in traits and the ability of the best adapted to survive easier when simulating the process of natural selection. However, the simulation doesn’t accurately demonstrate natural selection due to the lack of heredity. In the game, the light and dark moths flew across the screen in the same numbers throughout the simulation, not showing how there would be less and less of the moths that weren’t the same color as the forest, which is how heredity works in the real world. In the Light Tree Forest, the average percentage of dark moths that remained was 49.3%, and the average percentage of light moths that remained was 50.6%. Since there wasn’t a dwindling of the population of black moths, for many

What do a sponge and bird have in common? Believe it or not, they share a common origin. In the film, "Darwin 's Tree of Life," the narrator, David Attenborough, presents the audience with the theory of evolution as documented by Charles Darwin in the 1800 's. The video is based on Darwin 's perspective of evolution and natural selection. Darwin 's findings were revolutionary and caused out-rage among the religious who believed in the story of creation beginning with Adam and Eve. In the video, "Darwin 's Tree of Life," Darwin 's theory of evolution and natural selection proved the tree of life explains our evolution from a molecule to mammal.

Evolution is a change in a population and is usually seen as a slow process, but the pace of evolution can be rapid. In this lab, two of the forces of evolution was tested natural selection and genetic drift. In natural selection, 60 beans were used, 15 of each of 4 different kinds of beans. For genetic drift 48 beans were used, 12 of each of 4 different kinds of beans. The exercises was repeated up to 10 generations. Maintaining the frequency of each variety of the beans from the end of one generation to the start of the next generation the population was rebuilt to 60 beans for the natural selection exercise and 48 beans for the genetic drift. By the end of the 10th generation, changes were seen in both forces of evolution. This shows that

The purpose of this experiment was to determine how changing environmental factors would affect the allele frequencies in a population of white, brown, and black moths. More specifically, the aim was to see if final allele frequencies would coincide with the Hardy-Weinberg theory of evolution, or if genetic drift, amplified by environmental disasters, would play a significant role in the outcome of the experiment.

Drosophila melanogaster were studied to test whether evolution occurred in the population by analyzing the genotype and allele frequencies for 7 weeks. If evolution was occurring, then the aforementioned frequencies would change instead of remaining constant as they would if no evolution was occurring. The hypothesis of this lab is that evolution will occur due to the violation of three Hardy-Weinberg principles. This lab was carried out using 20 flies to start, 5 each of male and females that were homozygous ebony and wild type. New culture vials were made every other week when the flies were scored. On alternate weeks, the adults were transferred to a fly morgue. The results showed that the ebony allele frequency increased and the wild type