BI 100 Lab Assignment

Due: At the beginning of lab the week of March 18th

Instructions:
For full credit, you must complete all ten questions
thoroughly and thoughtfully with proper punctuation, capitalization,
grammar, and sentence structure (and, of course, with correct answers).
Please allow yourself extra room if necessary. All assignments should be
given to your instructor as hard copies, and if handwritten, should be legible.
You must present your own work; this is NOT a group project.
1) How does natural selection cause evolution?
Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals
in a population. Individuals with certain traits, called adaptations, have
greater survival and reproductive success (that is, fitness) than those without
these traits. These traits have a genetic basis; thus there will be more
individuals in the next generation with the adaptation. Over the course of
several generations, the trait will become common evolution has occurred
in the population.
2) Why dont all populations of a species have the same adaptations? (Hint:
Think about the exercise where you used pipe cleaners as prey animals.)
Two reasons: 1) Not all populations may have individuals that have the
appropriate mutation (that is, an adaptation may not arise in some
populations); 2) Not all populations experience the same environments; a
trait that is adaptive in one environment may be harmful in another.
3) Consider the data in the following table:
Generation
1
2
3
4

Green
8
10
14
20

Lavender
8
4
2
2

Yellow
8
6
4
4

Which individuals have the highest fitness in the population? ___green___

4) The pipe cleaners in the simulation of natural selection by predators gave
birth to offspring that were the same color. Color in pipe cleaner populations
is thus analogous to traits in natural populations that have a __ Genetic __
basis.
5) Is camouflage the only adaptation for surviving predation? Explain.
1

No, certain species might evolve different strategies for surviving predation,
including high rates of reproduction, increased speed, use of defensive
structures or chemicals, and so on.
6) Traits that increase an individuals success at obtaining limited resources
are favored by natural selection in environments where __ Competition __is a
major factor.
7) Do all mutations result in adaptations? Why or why not?
No, some mutations can be harmful and result in traits that are selected
against, and some can be neutral and not affected by natural selection.
8) Chickadees have a remarkable ability to learn from other birds about food
sources they have never seen before. In fact, chickadees in the United
Kingdom in the early 20th century learned how to drink out of mild bottles left
on door stoops by milk delivery services. After one or a few chickadees
learned how to do this, the ability spread throughout the countryside in a
matter of months. Is drinking out of milk bottles an adaptation that is subject
to evolution by natural selection in chickadees? Explain.
No. The trait of drinking out of milk bottles is not an evolutionary adaptation,
because the technique is learned, not passed on in the form of genes from
one generations to the next. However, the ability to learn quickly is probably
an adaptation in chickadees.
9. Imagine a dog that is born with a mutation that causes elongated and
webbed feet. Is this an adaptation? Why or why not?
Depends. The environment that the dog lives in will determine if this
mutation leads to increased fitness if it does, then it is an adaptation.
10. Use your understanding of natural selection to describe how the
following trait might have evolved.
Because water is in limited supply on land, plants that had traits that helped
to reduce water loss should have been favored by natural selection (as long
as those traits did not overly interfere with the other functions of the plant).
The ability of guard cells to actively regulate carbon dioxide uptake and
water loss is an adaptation that allows land plants to maximize
photosynthesis while minimizing water loss in a changing environment.
Plants have pores on the surfaces of their leaves that allow carbon dioxide
into the leaf (for photosynthesis), but also allow water and oxygen to escape.
Land plants have guard cells surrounding the pores that actively regulate the

size of the pore and will make the pore smaller in dry conditions.
ancestors of land plants did not have guard cells.

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