1. In this lab, we assigned people to certain types of feeding patterns. People with the AA genotype had to pick up food (corks) with their wrists, Aa had to use their second knuckles, and aa had to use their fingers. Each round, each individual would need to have eaten a certain amount of food to reproduce and survive. If the survive, they find a mate and flip coins to choose their baby's genotype. As the experiment goes on, favorable traits reproduce more and the allele frequency changes. The experiment simulated how natural selection occurs and put together the concepts of mendelian genetics and survival of the fittest.
2. The data shows that the knucklers were the best at capturing food. However, this is most likely a result of cheating because many of the knucklers used their entire hands rather than just their knuckles.
3. The population definitely evolved. At the start, 48% of the population had "a" alleles and 52% had "A" alleles. This was pretty even and the allele frequency was very balanced at the start. However, by the end of the 8th trial, the "a" had a staggering 70% frequency while "A" only had a frequency of 30%. If evolution is a change in allele frequency over time, then a change of this scale is definitely evidence that natural selection took place.
4. In this lab, there was a lot of other factors that affected results. Some people didn't have pockets which prevented them from gathering much food. Others weren't very fast at running or picking the corks up which prevented them from getting to the food. Many participants also cheated by not using their assigned phenotype, which allowed them to unfairly sway the results in their phenotype's favor.
5. If food was larger, then disruptive selection may take place. This is because the stumpies would be able to pick it up with their palms and the pinchers could grasp around the food with their long fingers. But the knucklers, whose phalanges can't stretch that far apart, would die off. If the corks were smaller, I would expect directional selection in which the knucklers and pinchers are favored due to their better dexterity.
6. Yes. If one allele had complete dominance over the other, then the pinchers might have become extremely rare. This would doom the population to being outcompeted by other species because only the inefficient knucklers would be common.
7. Natural selection is the mechanism, while evolution is the actual change that results from the shift in allele frequency.
8. The pinchers tended to mate with other pinchers because we knew that the "aa" phenotype tended to survive better. Also, the stumpies would try to mate with knucklers or pinchers because that would allow their child to be a knuckler. If mating choice was random, knucklers would easily become the majority phenotype.
9. In evolution, the population evolves. Natural selection acts on phenotypes, but as a result the genotype frequency changes. For example, if black fur helps with camouflage, then natural selection will cause the black fur trait to become common. But various genotypes can cause black fur and natural selection does not discriminate between those.
3. The population definitely evolved. At the start, 48% of the population had "a" alleles and 52% had "A" alleles. This was pretty even and the allele frequency was very balanced at the start. However, by the end of the 8th trial, the "a" had a staggering 70% frequency while "A" only had a frequency of 30%. If evolution is a change in allele frequency over time, then a change of this scale is definitely evidence that natural selection took place.
4. In this lab, there was a lot of other factors that affected results. Some people didn't have pockets which prevented them from gathering much food. Others weren't very fast at running or picking the corks up which prevented them from getting to the food. Many participants also cheated by not using their assigned phenotype, which allowed them to unfairly sway the results in their phenotype's favor.
5. If food was larger, then disruptive selection may take place. This is because the stumpies would be able to pick it up with their palms and the pinchers could grasp around the food with their long fingers. But the knucklers, whose phalanges can't stretch that far apart, would die off. If the corks were smaller, I would expect directional selection in which the knucklers and pinchers are favored due to their better dexterity.
6. Yes. If one allele had complete dominance over the other, then the pinchers might have become extremely rare. This would doom the population to being outcompeted by other species because only the inefficient knucklers would be common.
7. Natural selection is the mechanism, while evolution is the actual change that results from the shift in allele frequency.
8. The pinchers tended to mate with other pinchers because we knew that the "aa" phenotype tended to survive better. Also, the stumpies would try to mate with knucklers or pinchers because that would allow their child to be a knuckler. If mating choice was random, knucklers would easily become the majority phenotype.
9. In evolution, the population evolves. Natural selection acts on phenotypes, but as a result the genotype frequency changes. For example, if black fur helps with camouflage, then natural selection will cause the black fur trait to become common. But various genotypes can cause black fur and natural selection does not discriminate between those.
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