The Making of the Fittest

Rock Pocket Mouse Variation Guided Learning

Adapted from: The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation
https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/making-fittest-natural-selection-and-adaptation
Color Variation Over Time in Rock Pocket Mouse Populations

INTRODUCTION 1. Where are rock pocket mice found?

A typical rock pocket mouse is about 170 millimeters The Sonoran Desert.
long from its nose to the end of its tail, shorter than an
average pencil. And at just 15 grams, this tiny mouse
weighs about as much as a handful of paper clips.
2. What are the two varieties?
You can find populations of rock pocket mice all over the
Sonoran Desert in the southwestern United States. There A light colored variety and a dark
are two common varieties—a light-colored variety and a colored variety.
dark-colored variety.
3. What are the two substrates they
There are also two major colors of substrate, or surface can live on?
materials, that make up the desert floor. Most of the
Light colored sand and rocks as
landscape consists of light-colored sand and rock, but
well as well as dark volcanic
patches of dark volcanic rocks can be found scattered in rock.
the landscape.
The illustrations (see the next 4 slides) represent snapshots of rock pocket mouse
populations. Each full-page illustration shows the color variation at two different
locations, A and B, at a particular moment in time. (Note: The images are out of order.)

Count the number of light-colored and dark-colored mice present at each location
at each moment in time. Record your counts in the table provided on each slide.
4. Time Period 1

Number of mice Number of mice

1 with light-colored
fur
with dark-colored
fur

Location A 11 1

Location B 2 9
5. Time Period 2

Number of mice Number of mice

2 with light-colored
fur
with dark-colored
fur

Location A 10 2

Location B 10 `2
6. Time Period 3

Number of mice Number of mice

3 with light-colored
fur
with dark-colored
fur

Location A 10 2

Location B 6 6
7. Time Period 4

Number of mice Number of mice

4 with light-colored
fur
with dark-colored
fur

Location A 11 1

Location B 9 3
8. Arrange the cards in order that shows changes over time in the two locations:
9. Watch the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s short film The
Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation. Complete the
EdPuzzle version of
Why are some mice light colored and some mice dark colored? this video before
answering the
questions.

It is a different color due to a mutation in the mc1r gene. https://edpuzzle.com/

media/608b025ac514
2341211a7db4

How does fur color provide a selective advantage (or disadvantage)?

It allows a creature to either stand out from or blend into its

surrounding.
Were you correct?
10. Using what you learned by watching the film, check the order in which
you arranged the illustrations. If you need to, adjust the order on slide 8 with
the correct order.
Explain why the mice in location A did not change in the frequency of their colors.

They do not change their fur color as it is advantages in the environment it is located
in.

Explain why the mice in location B changed in the frequency of their colors.

Because their environment becomes disadvantages.

11. Predict what would happen if the dark rock areas disappeared over time.
What would happen to the dark mice in the population?

They would die off and be replaced with light furred mice.
12. Explain why a rock pocket mouse color influences its overall fitness.
Remember that “fitness” is defined by an organism’s ability to survive and produce
offspring.

There dark fur enables them to better hide in their environment. An explanation
This allows them to hide from sight based predators. This allows should be complete
them to survive for long periods periods of time before being eaten sentences, focus on
which allows them to reproduce.
the word “WHY.”