The Stickleback Fish-A: Evolution Of Endangered Species

Over the past few centuries, humans have been questioning and debating over what makes evolution true. In Jerry Coyne’s work, Why Evolution is True, he noted two kinds of evidence from Darwin’s theory of evolution. The first evidence includes the six testable predictions of evolution: evolution, gradualism, speciation, common-ancestry, natural selection, and nonselective mechanisms of evolutionary change. The second evidence that Coyne noted in his work is the retrodiction. In Coyne’s work, Why Evolution is True, a retrodiction is the facts and data that are not necessarily predicted by the theory of evolution but it makes sense only in the light of the theory of evolution. Retrodiction uses present theories to explain events that happens in the past. Since evolution is a slow process, theories could not be tested. Therefore, we explain the existence of vestigial structures and how humans share a common ancestor with fish through the theory of evolution. Throughout the text, examples of retrodiction are the imperfect adaptation of a panda’s thumb and gill slits in the beginning stages of a human embryo. Common ancestry is proven by the existence of fossils and these evidences proves that evolution is true.

Fossils provide a unique view into the history of life by showing the forms and features of life in the past. Fossils tell us how species have changed across long periods of the Earth’s history. For instance, in 1998, scientists found a fossil showing an animal at the transition from sea creature to land creature. This tetrapod had a hand-like fin, confirming a prediction of evolutionary biology. Though the fossil record does not include every plant and animal that ever lived, it provides substantial evidence for the common descent of life via evolution. The fossil record is a remarkable gift for the study of nature. That is why most of the evidence for evolution comes from the fossil record. Fossils show how much, or how little, organisms have changed over time. One of the problems with

If the null hypothesis cannot be rejected, the chi-square test was unable to detect a statistically significant difference between observed and expected data. When applying this test to the stickleback experiment, the development of pelvic structures will be compared in order to accept or reject the null hypothesis. If it is rejected, the alternate hypothesis is correct- the environment did have an impact on the development of the pelvic spines, proving that natural selection can drive the evolution not just of simple traits like coat color or body size, but also of complex traits like the size and shapes of body structures and

Researchers have witness something spectacular. In Enos Lake on Vancouver, similar species of a threespine stickleback fish lived there. One of the species usually lived in the middle of the lake eating zooplankton. The other specie lived in next to the shore eating larval stage insects. Within three years, the two species of the threespine stickleback fish disappeared. Researchers added crayfish into the lake. Researchers documented that within three years, 1994-1997, they saw less and less threespine fish, which they concluded it was the result of interbreeding. According to the University of Faculty of Science British Columbia stated, “The new stickleback fish does not perform all of the functions as its predecessors. The hybrid spends more

The article “Catching Evolution in Action,” demonstrates that modern day science are beginning to look at the evolutionary biology not only through observations but also in the experimental form. In the case of experimentation, biologists study the evolutionary changes in the “guppies” in streams. In the past, evolution was considered by scientists only to be observed and drawing conclusion and hypothesis through deduction and induction techniques (“Catching Evolution in Action”). However, those procedures started to change because scientists today are able to produce experiments in nature unlike previous general studies of animals. By conducting experiments through controlling their selection of what they will observe, scientists have the

The formal “Theory of Evolution” thought to have come about by Charles Darwin, is built on the premise that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor; meaning the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers are all related (“Darwin’s Theory of Evolution”). In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival. This process is formally known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different

What is evolution? Evolution is the idea that all species are descendants of ancient species that are different from modern day species. The idea of evolution is controversial, because there are counter arguments that species are related based on religion, or arguments that evolution has not been supported with enough evidence. Despite the counter arguments, evolution is a scientific theory that is supported from connections through science, technology, society and environment.

What is evolution and how does it happen? There are two ways of evolution taking place. There is microevolution and macroevolution. Microevolution is gene frequency. Macroevolution is speciation. There are two types of barriers that can be formed that would cause speciation to occur. Allopatric speciation is a physical barrier that separates a species long enough for speciation, such as a dam that was built. Sympatric speciation is speciation occurs without a geographic separation, such a mutation that caused a bird to sing a different song. Mutation can happen in many different ways. There is chromosomal alterations such as deletion, duplication, inversion,

For example, embryos of many animals, from fish to humans each show similarities, which suggest a common ancestor. In humans, it is obvious that embryos begin to develop what would have formed into gills that our ancestors had. Embryos also develop a tail, which by the time they are born it is gone which shows that ancestors were born with tails but we have evolved to no longer be born with a tail. Comparative embryology also shows that many different life forms experience similar stages of development, which points to common origins. Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (evolution of species). Comparative anatomy has served evidence for evolution, which indicates various organisms share a common ancestor. Comparative anatomy is the first line of reasoning in determining the connection of

The theory of evolution in itself is an evolution. The way humans understand how life came to exist and how it has changed along the way reflects the different socio economic environments we have created. For any scientist, previous theory’s and ideas from historians or other scholars are used in part to form the basis of understanding of new information (Klyve, D. k. 2014). The understanding of evolution as we see it today comes from many areas of the world amid varying time periods. The most famous and current understanding is that of Darwin, in 1859 his book On the Origin of Species revolutionized the way we see life and its continuity through natural selection. In this essay I will look at a project pertaining to the observational study of tropical fish that have changed through time with natural selection and divergence of geographical isolation. Scientists have found that by comparing genome scans, links in different lineages of Pacific reef fishes give an example of how isolating barriers contribute to morphologic changes in the species, (Gaither, M. R.,2015). I will also look at another study which suggests that natural selection is flawed as it does not take into account the current understanding of genomics. this study suggests that instead of natural selection and the process of evolving traits through the added complexity of structures in a species, species evolve due to random changes from the evolution of genomes (Randall JE 2007). Their idea if genomes

Evolution is a slow and gradual process that can occur over millions of years (gradualism). However, gradualism is not the only process of change in evolution. Sometimes specialisations occur very quickly when a new ecological niche develops – adaptive radiation.

Looking at the bar graph, the mean time (in minutes) of the marine and freshwater benthic stickleback fish I observed that schooling is inherited. But also looking at the graph you can see that schooling can be learned if need be.

These fossils can range from footprints left by an organism or skeletal structures such as the pelvic girdle of a fish. Fossils allow scientists to expound on the evolutionary history of an organism by providing features to follow throughout time. Scientists have pieced together the evolution of flight in birds and the structures needed to accomplish this task by documenting changes that took place in the forelimbs, clavicle, and pelvis from current birds back to their pre-winged ancestors. Additionally, the evolution of paired appendages and subsequent loss in some vertebrates has been well documented in the fossil record and specifically the stickleback. After the recession of the glaciers, populations of stickleback were scattered in isolated lakes throughout the northern hemisphere. Fish in lakes with no predation lost their pelvic spines since there was no evolutionary advantage to maintain them. By analyzing the fossils of stickleback scientists were able to see this change occurred over the span of

Evolution refers to change over time as species modifies and separate to produce several offspring species.

Species change because of a special process called evolution. Evolution, in simple terms, is change over time (Krukonis 10). To be more complicated, it is the change in the percentage of inherited traits in a group of organisms over time (“Evolution”). As evolution occurs it can be with an entire species or just one population of a species. It can be over a shorter period of time called microevolution. An example of microevolution can be bacteria mutating in a lab. Another type of evolution is called macroevolution. This takes place over a longer period of time with larger changes. In evolution, when one species evolves into two species it is called speciation. Speciation mostly occurs in animal species (Krukonis 12). For