Experiencing Evolution through Natural Selection
Lab Report
INTRODUCTION:
Living in the 21st century it is easy to take a lot of things for granted that have already been hypothesized, experimented, and then proven true or false. We are living in an age where knowing the world is round and not flat is common knowledge, humans have evolutionary ties to primates and neanderthals, and other species did not just one day appear on this planet. Though these pieces of information are now taken as truth there were times in the past these thoughts were just theories.
Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist paved the way for evolutionary concepts through his expeditions and keen observation of nature. One of his discoveries, which was once just a theory, was the idea of Natural Selection. Natural selection can be described as the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. (Google, source sited below) Darwin was able to study variation of Galapagos Finches from island to island on his 5 year ocean expedition aboard the HMS Beagle. He noticed that although the Finches all appeared to be similar there were slight differences between phenotypic traits that hinted at a common mainland ancestor.(Jurmain)
For our purpose of experiencing what it might be like to prove this discovery, Anthropology 1060 ran a simulation of the Natural Selection process by pretending to be Darwin's finch types. For our experiment we used different utensils to simulate variation amongst beak types and through successful 'seed gathering' we would pass on genetic traits.This evolutionary process as played out in class was a 50 minute experience, opposed to the hundreds of thousands of years it may actually take for a trait to express itself within a population.
HYPOTHESIS: I hypothesize that the tweezer 'beak' type will be very effective at getting the most food. We will pass the most traits on because tweezers are fine and are able to quickly grasp the most seeds.
MATERIALS:
To first prepare for the simulation, have all 33 participants sit or stand around a flat surface large enough for elbow room between one another. Hand each participant a paper cup to place in front of themselves, this cup will be where each person puts all of their gathered sunflower seeds. Next, randomly hand out the 5 tongs, 5 clothes pins, 5 chopsticks, etc., until all of the 'beak types' have been given to a participant. To start off the experiment, the bag of sunflower seeds must be emptied in even amounts onto the table top so all beak types have equal access to grab at the seeds.
For the first round, have all participants with their beak types ready and start the timer. The purpose is for each beak type to try and grab as many seeds as possible and put it into their cup. Stop the timer at a designated time ( for our class' purpose we stopped the clock at :30 seconds for the first round.) Instruct all participants to empty the contents of their paper cups and count how many seeds they collected. The 3 participants with the beak types that have the LEAST amount of seeds gathered and the 3 participants with the beak types that have the MOST seeds gathered must be identified and set apart from the rest of the participants. Have the 3 most successful participants give one beak type each of their kind to the 3 least successful participants for that round. The 3 least successful participants must set aside the beaks that they were using originally and use the beaks given to them in the next round. The exchange simulates an unsuccessful trait dying, and for every successful beak type, they are able to reproduce and pass that genetic trait on.
Continue in this way for 5 rounds, documenting how many of each beak type there is in each round and determine the most successful beak type at the end.
RESULTS:
The results of this experiment show that Chopsticks saw the most numerous decline of it's beak types, and the Tongs and Clothes Pins are tied as most successful beak type with 9 participants using this utensil.
CONCLUSION:
The results of this experiment show that my hypothesis was rejected. The tweezers were not the most successful beak type for picking up sunflower seeds. With this being said, further replications of this experiment could yield different results due to the participants and their mastery of using the utensils provided in this experiment.
DISCUSSION:
Reflect on how the scientific method and the theory of evolution have been applied throughout the class and illustrate your discussion with specific examples. Reflect on how you thought about human evolution before you took this course and how you think about it now that the course is over. Have any of your assumptions or understandings changed? Why/why not? What assignments/activities/readings were influential in this process?
The scientific method and theory of evolution have pretty much been used and applied throughout the entire class. For example, we used the theory of evolution in understanding how primates evolved, and then leading up to homo, then homo sapien sapiens. One example of was an in class assignment where we looked at skulls and used different characteristics to identify whether or not they were primates. We discussed how primates have evolved certain special bodily adaptions to better survive and pass on genetics.
I've been taught that evolution is the basis of how we as 'modern humans' have come to be. I cannot remember what grade I learned this in- or if it's just been the slow adding on of knowledge of evolution- but I can say after this class I have a much better idea of how, and why evolution takes place. Through the process of natural selection and other forces evolution starts very slowly and can take hundreds, thousands to hundreds of thousands of years to see noticeable changes in a species. I feel that chapter 5- processes of evolution really gave me an overview of how these changes can occur- and then the slides on pre human skulls was a true eye opener.
INTRODUCTION:
Living in the 21st century it is easy to take a lot of things for granted that have already been hypothesized, experimented, and then proven true or false. We are living in an age where knowing the world is round and not flat is common knowledge, humans have evolutionary ties to primates and neanderthals, and other species did not just one day appear on this planet. Though these pieces of information are now taken as truth there were times in the past these thoughts were just theories.
Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist paved the way for evolutionary concepts through his expeditions and keen observation of nature. One of his discoveries, which was once just a theory, was the idea of Natural Selection. Natural selection can be described as the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. (Google, source sited below) Darwin was able to study variation of Galapagos Finches from island to island on his 5 year ocean expedition aboard the HMS Beagle. He noticed that although the Finches all appeared to be similar there were slight differences between phenotypic traits that hinted at a common mainland ancestor.(Jurmain)
For our purpose of experiencing what it might be like to prove this discovery, Anthropology 1060 ran a simulation of the Natural Selection process by pretending to be Darwin's finch types. For our experiment we used different utensils to simulate variation amongst beak types and through successful 'seed gathering' we would pass on genetic traits.This evolutionary process as played out in class was a 50 minute experience, opposed to the hundreds of thousands of years it may actually take for a trait to express itself within a population.
HYPOTHESIS: I hypothesize that the tweezer 'beak' type will be very effective at getting the most food. We will pass the most traits on because tweezers are fine and are able to quickly grasp the most seeds.
MATERIALS:
- One large bag of sunflower seeds
- At least 5 Tongs
- At least 5 Clothes Pins
- At least 5 Chopsticks
- At least 5 Tweezers
- At least 5 Hair Clips
- A tleast 5 Chip Clips
- At least 3 Binder Clips
- 33 Participants
- 33 paper cups
- Clock or Timer
To first prepare for the simulation, have all 33 participants sit or stand around a flat surface large enough for elbow room between one another. Hand each participant a paper cup to place in front of themselves, this cup will be where each person puts all of their gathered sunflower seeds. Next, randomly hand out the 5 tongs, 5 clothes pins, 5 chopsticks, etc., until all of the 'beak types' have been given to a participant. To start off the experiment, the bag of sunflower seeds must be emptied in even amounts onto the table top so all beak types have equal access to grab at the seeds.
For the first round, have all participants with their beak types ready and start the timer. The purpose is for each beak type to try and grab as many seeds as possible and put it into their cup. Stop the timer at a designated time ( for our class' purpose we stopped the clock at :30 seconds for the first round.) Instruct all participants to empty the contents of their paper cups and count how many seeds they collected. The 3 participants with the beak types that have the LEAST amount of seeds gathered and the 3 participants with the beak types that have the MOST seeds gathered must be identified and set apart from the rest of the participants. Have the 3 most successful participants give one beak type each of their kind to the 3 least successful participants for that round. The 3 least successful participants must set aside the beaks that they were using originally and use the beaks given to them in the next round. The exchange simulates an unsuccessful trait dying, and for every successful beak type, they are able to reproduce and pass that genetic trait on.
Continue in this way for 5 rounds, documenting how many of each beak type there is in each round and determine the most successful beak type at the end.
RESULTS:
The results of this experiment show that Chopsticks saw the most numerous decline of it's beak types, and the Tongs and Clothes Pins are tied as most successful beak type with 9 participants using this utensil.
CONCLUSION:
The results of this experiment show that my hypothesis was rejected. The tweezers were not the most successful beak type for picking up sunflower seeds. With this being said, further replications of this experiment could yield different results due to the participants and their mastery of using the utensils provided in this experiment.
DISCUSSION:
- Explain the scientific method and identify other fields that use the scientific method- (Pg.404) The scientific method is an approach to research whereby a problem is identified, a hypothesis (provisional explanation) is stated, and that hypothesis is tested by collecting and analyzing data. Essentially, any scientific field out there uses this method to prove or disprove theories, some for example would be Chemistry, Chemical engineering, Physics, paleontology, archaeology, etc....
- Discuss how this activity demonstrated your use of the scientific method- This activity demonstrated my use of the scientific method by writing out and demonstrating an experiment to prove or disprove a hypothesis I formed.
- Explain the theory of evolution by natural selection and its underlying assumptions- The theory of evolution by natural selection basically states that favorable variations will become more common and increase in frequency in a population. For that to happen there must be these 4 underlying premises already in place: Variation with a population, competition for a food source, traits must be inherited, and the differential reproductive success dictates which traits are passed on.
- Find and describe one specific human example of evolution by natural selection- One example of evolution by natural selection found in humans is that there are people more resistant to malaria living in Africa. As people who don't possess the resistance to malaria get sick and may die, those who do have this resistance as able to live and pass the genetic trait on to their offspring.
- REFERENCES
- Google- Search term for Natural Selection
- 'Essentials of Physical Anthropology', 9th Edition, Jurmain/Kilgore/Trevathan
- Google- Search term for Natural Selection
Reflect on how the scientific method and the theory of evolution have been applied throughout the class and illustrate your discussion with specific examples. Reflect on how you thought about human evolution before you took this course and how you think about it now that the course is over. Have any of your assumptions or understandings changed? Why/why not? What assignments/activities/readings were influential in this process?
The scientific method and theory of evolution have pretty much been used and applied throughout the entire class. For example, we used the theory of evolution in understanding how primates evolved, and then leading up to homo, then homo sapien sapiens. One example of was an in class assignment where we looked at skulls and used different characteristics to identify whether or not they were primates. We discussed how primates have evolved certain special bodily adaptions to better survive and pass on genetics.
I've been taught that evolution is the basis of how we as 'modern humans' have come to be. I cannot remember what grade I learned this in- or if it's just been the slow adding on of knowledge of evolution- but I can say after this class I have a much better idea of how, and why evolution takes place. Through the process of natural selection and other forces evolution starts very slowly and can take hundreds, thousands to hundreds of thousands of years to see noticeable changes in a species. I feel that chapter 5- processes of evolution really gave me an overview of how these changes can occur- and then the slides on pre human skulls was a true eye opener.