• The article lists some “Main questions of Evolutionary Biology Today” Which does this article attempt to answer?
Although the article lists various questions, the main question discussed would most likely be “Are the same genes and mutations responsible for similar traits in different populations or species?”
• Why is the characteristic of a color a useful one for studying the genetic basis of adaptations?
In Hopi E. Hoestra’s article From Darwin to DNA: The Genetic Basis of Color Adaptations, the author explains the advantages of using color to study genetic basis of adaptations.
First, color is a trait in which an organism is able to interact with their environment through biological processes such as mate choice, warning coloration, mimicry, and camouflage. Secondly, this adaptive trait can be found in the genetic material of most organisms.
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Since my strands of hair are dark brown, I know that I produce eumelanin. If I were to have blonde or red hair, then I would produce pharomelanin.
• How long (maximum) did it take for these Beach (light coat) phenotypes to evolve?
The paper does not state an exact time when beach mice evolved to have light coat colors; however, it does mention information on the barrier islands. The barrier islands formed anywhere from 6,000 to 4,000 years ago. I believe that the beach mice phenotype (for light coat color) evolved around 6,000 to 4,000 years ago, which would mean that the phenotype had a fast evolution.
• Is there convergent evolution in light coat color in the beach mice populations?
Based on the evidence presented in the article, the reader can conclude that convergent evolution occurred in the light coat color in the beach mice population. Even though the Gulf Coast mice and the Atlantic Coast mice developed light coat colors, these species of mice are not sister taxa. Instead, the two mice populations developed different mutations for the same
Figures 1-3, 5-6, and 8-9 all showed a change, but not as large as their counterparts. This was due to the fact that the mice were usually cleaning themselves at in this group during the control. Figure 8 shows the smallest change between the two groups with a value of 0.0002. This figure represents a Cage A Yellow Mouse, which also had one of the lower body weights.
This made them more hydrodynamic and they could swim faster, saving breath. Along with this adaption was another trait, linked genetically. By genetic alteration back in Murinae Labs, some rats had a dormant recessive gene that gave them nose flaps that could seal tight to keep water out. This gene remained dormant until some rats grew shorter whiskers. Since the short whisker gene was so rare, the Smiths had thought nothing of genetically linking it to the new nose gene.
The starting population in the experiment contained 100 organisms of Dottus Variengatus. The results of both parts of the experiment rejected the null hypothesis tested. The Dottus variegatus individuals experienced negative selection effects by predators based on their bright and distinctive phenotypes that made them stand out among the rest of the population. Individuals with lighter colors represented the adapted individuals which experienced positive selection pressure. These individuals were benefited by predation because they survived and could continue to pass their alleles and contribute to the gene pool of the future population.
Natural Selection is the concept that organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. This leads to the creation of populations and diversity of life within them. In the Skittlefish Lab, many separate occurrences can be observed which detail and explain how Natural Selection works on a population over a period of time. Certain adaptations in a species in its entirety may display how individuals impact the whole population as they pass their traits onto their offspring, which do the same. This lab required students to observe the individual “Skittlefish” and “Sea M&Ms” in different environments as they camouflaged and hid from predators.
This meant that in the population there were already ten different color of prey that occurred naturally. However, when the environment was a blue background with colorful flowers and butterflies, many of the different colored prey had gone extinct and the red prey had the highest number of survivors. Also, environment two was pink, white, and black plaid and the prey that had the most number of survivors in that environment was white. This demonstrates that depending on the environment, different variations of a trait would be successful. It also demonstrates that the adaptations in this experiment depended on the environments.
If the genetic aspects of the two populations show significant differences, then it is reasonable to make inference about their divergence. Johnson and Marten (1988) illustrated the differentiation of allopatric populations by examining 41 genetic loci in 11 breeding populations through electrophoresis. By examining the allelic frequency in coastal and interior populations, some alleles appearing in one population with high frequencies do not exist or have low
Skin color has created a diverse population in society as we know it. Differences within race among various populations conclude that there was more than one evolutionary event. Today, while we don’t have fossil skin from our African hominin ancestors (Homo erectus), it’s probable that they were dark, as are African populations now. Earlier ancestors may have had lighter skin. Now, take a look at our closest relatives, chimps and gorillas, their skin the actual parts underneath the hair are unpigmented.
Near the junction between a single ancestral species branching off into two distinctive species, there will undoubtedly be large similarities between the two species. These similarities are expected to diminish over many generations as the two species become reproductively incompatible. However, If we consider the "grey area" that is the time between two strains of a species becoming reproductively distinct, we can why it is so advantageous for distinguishable facial features to arise; distinct facial features serve as a form of genetic authentication that allows identification of individuals with certain genes. These are the exact genotypic traits that must be propagated in a subset of the ancestral species for a budding new species to adapt to a new environment and/or escape the competition for resources from the original ancestral species by developing a niche. Hence, two characterizing features of primates with distinguishable facial features are genetic diversity and capacity for adaptive radiation.
The very first fossil record of squirrels state that “they originated in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly North America, around 36 million years ago. The fossil of the earliest recorded squirrel, Douglassciurus jeffersoni, ranges from approximately 37.5 to 35 million years ago” (Steppan an Hamm). However, recently a new fossil of the Euharamiyida group, which looked very similar to
How long did it take for the populations to evolve into different populations with different colored coats? Did gene mutation cause a change in the coat color between populations of the Rock Pocket mouse? Hypothesis: Alternate hypothesis: Rock Pocket mice have different coat colors that help to their advantage that depend on their location through evolution. Null hypothesis: Rock Pocket mice don’t have different coat colors that help to their advantage that depend on location through evolution.
There are many versions of biological racial perspective, for the purpose of this research, two different approaches were presented by the
Introduction The theory of evolution has been discussed, evaluated, and researched many times since the theory was first brought to light. Darwin’s theory of evolution is said to be divided into two parts, common decent and natural selection (Bouzat, 2014). Many research papers agreeing with Darwin’s theory comment on the diversity of a species and how they have descended from one common ancestor. Natural selection is a process in which species that are better adapted to the environment tend to survive and reproduce (Dictonary.com).
This means that the closer two peoples ancestral groups lived to each other, the more similar there skin color will be. This concept is not isolated to skin color, but is nearly universally constant among biological variation. It is difficult to argue that race is based upon biology when
The origins of human skin colour: The origins of human skin colour remained an enigma that was to generate a multitude of misconceptions. The true source of human pigmentation was finally revealed with the discovery of the melanocyte in the 19th century. Once the amino acid tyrosine was identified to be the key enzyme in pigment formation, attention focused on elucidating the chemical structure of melanin, an enterprise that remains incomplete.
It is easy to see the examples in our living environment and Dr. Stapleton also propose some examples in human. For example, African have black skin comparing with the European. Having a black skin color is necessary which is because black skin have much melanin to protect their skin from the sun. If the creature cannot adopt the environment, they will become extinction.