2023 TCi Adaptations Lesson 4: Observing Natural Selection...

Lesson 4 - Observing Natural Selection

Multiple Choice

What is Darwin famous for studying?

• Penguins

• Beagles

• Fishes

• Finches

Multiple Choice

How do the finches of the Galapagos illustrate natural selection?

• Birds on every island have beaks uniquely suited to their food source

• The birds that were afraid of humans survived and reproduced

• The finches have adapted to building their nests of discarded plastic

Multiple Choice

Which set of Islands had a strong influence on Darwins ideas?

• Hawaii

• Galapagos

• Samoa

• Florida Keys

Observing Natural Selection in Action

Multiple Choice

Why is the mouse population changing over time?

• The light mice can reproduce more successfully than the dark mice

• The hawks eat more dark mice than light mice because the dark mice taste better

• The hawks eat more light mice than dark mice because they can see the light mice more easily

• The hawks eat more dark mice than light mice because they can see the dark mice more easily

Multiple Choice

What process is being shown in this image?

• Variation

• Natural Selection

• Selective Breeding

• Homeostasis

Multiple Choice

"Organisms that are better adapted to the environment survive to pass traits to their offspring" is the definition of

• Natural Selection

• Evolution

• Selective Breeding

• Artificial Selection

1. Natural Selection for Survival

-Scientists have seen evidence of natural selection for traits that improve survival

Examples: flat-tailed horned lizards vs loggerhead shrikes

Prey - flat-tailed horned lizards small spiked lizard...trait Variation in spike length

Predator - loggerhead shrikes (Bird) Prefers lizards with short spikes for food…

Natural Selection favors longer spikes and lizards pass on this trait more often to their offspring.

Multiple Choice

A horned lizard's body is covered in _____. 

• scales

• spines

• feathers

• hair

2. Natural Selection for Reproduction

Organisms need to reproduce to pass on traits.

-natural selection favors traits that help organisms find and attract mates and reproduce successfully
(even if they may decrease the chances of survival)

-Examples: Male peacocks tail feathers, bighorn sheep male horns, fireflies glowing

2. Natural Selection for Reproduction (cont.)

Other traits help living things successfully raise young.

-Natural selection favors the survival of young, this is
important to passing on traits

-Examples: mammeles provide milk, bird bring food
(sometimes predigested), seahorse males keep eggs
in pouch

The process in action - Male widowbirds birds have long
tails females don't...females prefer males with long tails so
the trait is exaggerated...tails will keep getting longer until
there's more selection against tail length then for lengthy
tails.

Multiple Choice

What does sexual selection mean?

• Mating is not random

• Organisms mate based on attractiveness

• Organisms have the ability to compete for a mate

• All of these are true

3. Natural Selection in a Changing Environment

How do organism change when the
environment changes:

-Organism change when the environment
changes (if they have enough time and a
successful variation - other wise
extinction)

-Example: Peppered moths in Great Britain
two varieties, white and black...the white
was a lot more common...then the
industrial revolution started and the black
moth became more common...the trees
got darker and the white could not
camouflage - after pollution laws the
numbers of white/black moths reversed
again

Multiple Choice

Why did the number of white peppered moths decrease so much by 1895?

• they did not blend in with the trees and birds ate them

• they tasted better to the birds than the black moths

• they were easier to reach on the trees

• white moths flew away to find better trees to blend in with

Multiple Choice

Why did the population of moths change

• Predators were able to easily see their prey.

• People hunted lighter colored moths

• White moths were killed by the smoke from the factories

• Moths mood changed to sad, causing them to become dark

3. Natural Selection in a Changing Environment (cont.)

How do organism change when
the environment changes:

-Scientist looked at several possible
reason...but experiments continue to
point toward camouflage/pollution
scenario as the reason for the
change.

-Traits that supported successful
survival and reproduction in the new
environment became more common.
Traits that did not became less
common.

Natural Selection in Populations

Sketch the diagram

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is the correct way to summarize natural selection?

• overproduction, variations, selection, adaptations

  (survive and reproduce)

• survive and reproduce, variations, competition

• competition, fitness, survive and reproduce

• survive, variations, competition, and reproduce

Multiple Choice

What is the process in which populations CHANGE gradually over time?

• evolution

• species

• variation

• competition

4. Managing Insecticide Resistance in Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes carry diseases (like Malaria) and are a
pest

Insecticides are used to reduce their
population...over time they develop (evolve)
resistance to the pesticide

Insecticides and Insecticide Resistance

Insects reproduce quickly and as result develop
resistance to insecticides over a short time frame

Combining Different Insecticides

One solution is to rotate insecticides to prevent the
development of effective resistance

Multiple Choice

Why are advantageous traits more likely to be passed onto offspring?

• Because organisms with those traits are more likely to survive and reproduce.

• Because they come from recessive alleles.

• Because they come from dominant alleles.

• Because the trait is an acquired (learned) phenotype.

5. Natural Selection and Coevolution

Sometime organisms evolve together
for better or worse!!!

Interaction Between a Plant and a Bat

Hardwicke’s woolly bat and Pitcher plants developed
a beneficial relationship - the bat gets shelter the
pitcher plant gets nutrients from bat droppings...

Multiple Choice

Hummingbirds have a beak just the right length to reach the nectar in a cardinal flower and as they feed their foreheads bump into the pollen structure. Cardinal flowers are red which hummingbirds can see but bees can’t. Cardinal flower’s pollen structure is just the right length for the hummingbird to pick up pollen as it feeds...this is called

• Random Luck

• Artificial Selection

• Coevolution

• Extinction

Multiple Choice

The bird on the right is better adapted to get the worm. It will probably survive and reproduce. This is known as_____.

• Atomic distribution

• Natural Selection

• Population

5. Natural Selection and Coevolution

Interaction Between a Snake and a Newt

Rough-skinned newt and its predator, the common garter snake have been developing toxins and toxin
resistance with each other...in area with garter snakes the newts are more poisonous and the snakes
have greater resistance..this is a negative relationship (predator/prey arms race)

Multiple Choice

____ is when members of a species that are best suited for their environment survive and reproduce at a higher rate than other members of the species

• natural selection

• artificial selection

• speciation

• adaptation

Match

Match the following

• Natural Selection

• Adaptation

• Coevolution

• Diversity

• Species

Process where traits and organisms that are best adapted to the environment survive and reproduce.

A variation in a plant or animal that increases it chance of survival in its environment.

the evolution of two species in response to each other, resulting in “matching” adaptation

The variation of life forms present in different ecosystems.

Organisms that can reproduce, have similar characteristics, and have a common gene pool.

• Process where traits and organisms that are best adapted to the environment survive and reproduce.

• A variation in a plant or animal that increases it chance of survival in its environment.

• the evolution of two species in response to each other, resulting in “matching” adaptation

• The variation of life forms present in different ecosystems.

• Organisms that can reproduce, have similar characteristics, and have a common gene pool.

Multiple Choice

What do you call a characteristic that allows an organism to survive in an environment?

• variation

• adaptation

• selection

• overproduction

Multiple Select

Select ALL the parts of Natural Selection (Hint: it's more than 1).

• overproduction

• evolution

• variation

• selection

• competition

Hotspot

Select the snails that are most likely to survive and reproduce.