Jacquelyn Smith

Instructor Dr. Heather Cunningham

Biology 101

1 August 2018

Evolution is the natural process that helps organisms to adapt and to break off into new
species of organisms becoming more complex and more diverse over generations of a
population. Natural selection, also known as survival of the fittest, is the process that ensures
that the healthiest, most virile, and best adapted to survive members of a population are
likeliest to reproduce, ensuring the overall survival of the species. An allele is a variant form of a
gene, and the allele frequency tells us how much genetic diversity there is in a given
population. A mutation occurs when a DNA gene is damaged or changed, causing alteration to
the genetic code of an organism. This alteration can be passed down over generations,
eventually causing the mutation to be the new majority genetic standard for that population.
DNA drives who we are. In our DNA is the map, provided through the sexual
reproduction of our human parents, to what we will look like (our phenotype) and what genes
make us up (our genotype). Let’s say a woman had a mutation passed down through her
family’s DNA that caused their phenotype to include violet eyes. Her mate was attracted to her
because of her beautiful violet eyes. Because her inherited genetic mutation of violet eyes was
considered especially attractive, it resulted in sexual selection. She may be more likely to
reproduce because of this. Many generations from now, there may be a whole segment of the
population with violet eyes because of this evolution.
I’m hopeful my experiment worked correctly- my internet wasn’t really up to supporting
this experiment and was very wonky throughout! Just a caveat before I get into my data.
The lab exercise was conducting experiments within 10 generations of rabbit
populations where we altered their fur color, tail and tooth length, and introduced factors like
food and wolves to see how this affected the alleles for given traits over that period of time. In
the equator setting, we started with 100% white rabbits. When we changed the mutation to
brown fur as a recessive trait, and later added wolves as an environmental risk factor, we ended
up with 100% brown rabbits. Brown rabbits were likelier to avoid the wolves in the arid climate.
White rabbits were easy to spot and couldn’t survive. In the tooth length experiment, we began
with 100% normal toothed rabbits. After food was introduced as a selection factor and the
generations progressed, we ended up with 96% long-toothed rabbits, better able to eat the
foods provided. In the long tail experiment, we began with 100% short-tailed rabbits. When
long-tailed rabbits became dominant, the species perished. This is probably because longer tails
enable the wolves to clamp onto the rabbits as they attempted to escape, and longer tails make
it easier for wolves to draw them rabbits out of their warrens with them. The population could
not evolve with this allele expressed dominantly. From the 4th generation population of 54
rabbits, we dropped to 1 rabbit in the 7th generation and could not survive to the 10th
generation.
The fur color and tail length experiments were very detrimental to the rabbit populations
overall, causing decreases in population from 54 in the second generation fur color experiment
to 1 in the tenth, and 54 in the second generation of the tail length experiment to zero before
the tenth. The tooth length experiment seemed detrimental at the 7th generation, as it dropped
to 26 from the 4th generation of 54 rabbits, but then the population rebounded by the 10 th
generation to 50 rabbits. This population seemed the likeliest to have long-term success.