PBS Evolution in Action: California Salamanders 3 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDIQFQOCGaI When did Ensatina sp range extend throughout California? What habitat allowed this range? - According to Prof. David Wake of the University of California Berkeley, they began to extend roughly 10 million years ago in the Redwood Forests What two geographic pathways did Ensatina sp take as their range migrated towards Southern California? - One was the Sierra Nevada chain, where these animals moved into the forest regions, and the other was the Coastal Mountains. What area did they avoid? - They avoided the Great Central Valley What were the two adaptation strategies that Ensatina sp developed through natural selection in inland forest vs Coast populations? - Camouflage: These forest salamanders that blended in more with their surroundings tended to live longer and gave these traits to their offspring - Advertising: The Coastal Salamandersadopted the color pattern and behavior of dangerously poisonous newts- they advertised their dangerous resemblance to these poisonous newts What connects the two pathways of Ensatina sp in the southern part of their range? - The Camouflage and hybrid organisms How does Ensatina sp exemplify Darwin’s ideas of evolution? - It presents Darwin ideas like adaptive, gradual, and divergence leading to what would be a new species. PBS Cheetah Conservation at the Genetic Level 5:46 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdtxnzwzgaQ What has caused cheetah decline? - Human Wildlife Conflict and Poaching What clued scientists in to how much genetic diversity cheetah’s have lost? - The que was the drastic and large amount of Cheetah’s numbers decreasing What is causing decline in cheetah reproductive success? - The abnormally high concentration of unusual sperm What are some solutions for helping cheetah that are being developed? - Catching and tagging Cheetah’s in order to look deeper into their DNA and living patterns can help researchers come up with ideas on the cheetah development How is the cheetah conservation lab unique? - The diversity and resourceability in the lab makes the Cheetah Conservation Lab unique because of the different walks of life that come into the conservation and how they use what they have to their advantage. Stated Clearly. Evolution of New Viruses 10 minutes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJLXdsO1GBI What are some of the unsupported hypotheses about the origins of the current SARS Coronavirus 2 (COVID-19)? - 1. The Virus is a genetically modified weapon - 2. The Virus may just be an evolved animal infecting disease - 3. The virus may be an escaped lab specimen What are viruses? - Virus’ are disease causing agents that are microscopic and can cause sickness by infecting and reproducing in your body What are the components of a virus anatomy? - Rabies, HIV, Bacteriophage Are humans the only species that viruses infect? - No, virus’ can occur in animals and in plant cells as well Is the current COVID 19 the only coronavirus out in the environment? - No, there’s such thing as the bird coronavirus How does evolution assist viruses being ability jump from one host to another? - When the genes of the virus are copied during reproduction, mutations can occur causing them to be able to jump from one person to another. What is this process called? - Recombination or reassortment How does the evolutionary process allow a virus to become specialized for reproducing and spreading in the novel host? - When the mutations that change the shape of the spiked make the virus useless, the velcro then doesn’t stick to any host cells. What does genetic analysis tell us about spillover events? - When this occurs, the virus spills over to another host, but they’re usually dead ends since only about 1-2 people are successfully affected. What was the origin of the first SARS coronavirus outbreak? - Early 2000’s Are Coronaviruses the only type of virus that can spillover from other animal species? Give 3 examples. - No, there are other examples such as: - Chimps - Bats - Civets What are some of the possible animal species the current SARS Coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) may have spilled over from? - Pigs, Camels, Chickens, Other birds, Pangolins Is it unreasonable to anticipate more spillover events? Why or why not? - No, it’s not unreasonable because like many cases in Evolution, if it happens once, it will more than likely happen again. Furthermore, Covid-19 was something that happened before, but nowhere near as extreme. Variations and Mutations occur so the type of virus you get or the extremity will always vary. Read the following article and write a ½ page personal reflection. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/destroyed-habitat-creates-the-perfect-conditions-for-c oronavirus-to-emerge/?utm_medium=social&utm_content=organic&utm_source=facebook&utm _campaign=SciAm_&sf231648028=1&fbclid=IwAR1XphD9ROuLwrD2cW3UB8TgsxC4AkNjUW h4QB193f4s-mdUskIej-xyBUQ In the article, it focuses on how the destroyed habitats and ecosystems are breeding grounds for numerous diseases and viruses, and how us humans have directly contributed to that destruction, and why we’re going to be paying the price if we don’t change. Society has been built so much on economic growth that we have destroyed almost anything in our path in order to gain more space for houses, buildings, power plants, etc. While this may have some positives, we fail to realize the negative effects on biodiversity in our ecosystems and just how much that will affect us. When we tear down forests and wild landscapes this unleashes so many possibilities on viruses and diseases that we don’t know about. The forests and wild landscapes create a barrier or “cage” for these organisms that weren’t meant to come into interaction with humans thus, many new things are introduced to humans and to the organisms that don’t work out well for both. Destroying ecosystems and killing the animals that live in them, disrupt the dynamic of the ecosystem and “shake loose” of the viruses that were on their natural hosts. I found this article to be very intriguing an super thought provoking, because it brought to my attention points that I never that were interconnected.
