GENERAL BIOLOGY II – Natural Selection simulation assignment

Natural Selection

Name: Masai Pace

Experimental Question: How does the environment affect the survival of these organisms?

Procedure:

1. Click on “Introduction” to read about the simulation.

2. Write a hypothesis for each environment:

a. Desert Sand:

The brown individuals will be much more successful as they will blend in better

b. Mountain Rock:

The gray individuals will be much more successful as they will blend in better

c. Grassland:

The brown individuals will be moderately more successful as they blend in slightly better

3. Run the simulation 3 times for each environment (desert, mountain, and grassland) and record
your data.

4. Calculate and record averages for your data.

5. Complete the analysis and discussion questions.

Data:
GENERAL BIOLOGY II – Natural Selection simulation assignment

Desert Sand Environment

Trial Starting % Gray Starting % Brown Ending % Gray Ending % Brown

1 42% 58% 17% 83%

2 42% 58% 37% 63%

3 42% 58% 13% 87%

Average 42 58 22 78

Mountain Rock Environment

Trial Starting % Gray Starting % Brown Ending % Gray Ending % Brown

1 52 48 72 28

2 40 60 50 50

3 38 62 50 50

Average 43 57 57 42

Grassland Environment

Trial Starting % Gray Starting % Brown Ending % Gray Ending % Brown

1 54 46 57 43

2 56 44 66 34

3 48 52 42 58

Average 53 47 55 53
GENERAL BIOLOGY II – Natural Selection simulation assignment

Analysis:

Desert Sand:

The brown individuals were much more successful as they blended in better

Mountain Rock:

The gray individuals were successful but not much more so than brown
individuals, their color only seemed to give them a slight advantage

Grassland:

The gray individuals seemed to have a slight advantage over the brown
individuals in the grassy terrain

Discussion:

1. Describe factors that can cause environmental change.

Climate, Natural disasters, human activity

GENERAL BIOLOGY II – Natural Selection simulation assignment

2. Describe industrial melanism and the effect it had on peppered moths based on the video on
Natural Selection.

Industrial Melanism is when animals develop dark-colored skin/fur/feathers to adapt to a

soot-darkened environment caused by human industry. As London became more soot-covered,
lighter-colored moths were easier to see by predators and thus were preyed upon more frequently
and moths that happened to be darker were harder to see by predators and were more likely to
survive and pass on their genes

3. Describe an example of another species that has undergone an evolution in response to

human-driven environmental changes.

Cimex lectularius or the common bedbug, have developed thicker exoskeletons and faster
metabolisms over the years in order to survive the pesticides commonly used on them by humans

4. What could lead to different populations of the same species living in different environments?

One group splits off from the larger population and migrates somewhere else
GENERAL BIOLOGY II – Natural Selection simulation assignment

5. Grizzly bears and polar bears are very closely related, so much so that they can reproduce to
form hybrid offspring. Use your understanding of natural selection to describe how polar bears
became a separate classification from the grizzly.

A group of grizzly bears split off from the larger grizzly bear population of wherever and settle in the
arctic circle (possibly by way of a land bridge) and are cut off from the rest. The grizzly bear population
begins to adapt to the conditions of the arctic circle and after thousands of years, polar bears as we
know them exist

6. Describe how grizzly and polar bear evolution may be affected by climate change.

Bears might begin to grow thinner pelts in response to the increasing temperatures.
Polar bears, specifically, might begin to regain their brown fur as year-round winters cease to occur.