Natural Selection Report
Angelica Norton
ePortfolio Signature Assignment
ANTH 1020, Spring 2015
Introduction
a.
Charles Darwin spent five weeks on the Galapagos Islands and found
something puzzling. Darwin found that the finch species were all
different but somehow related. By using his collected information
Darwin hypothesized each beak of the finches determined which beak
nature favored. Peter and Rosemary Grant did experiments; they’ve
gone to Galapagos Island to study the finches in the years of 1973-1985.
They’ve found that in droughts, finches with large beaks are favored
because they used their beaks to break larger seeds that could grow in
dry conditions. In rainy weather, finches with small beaks were in favor
of nature, because they could collect tiny seeds compared to large beaks.
b.
I predict tongs are going to collect the most sunflower seeds because
they have a pocket to secure the seed.
i.
The other beaks compared to tongs don’t have extra room for the
sunflower seed to be secured. Tongs are large and are meant to
grasp big portions of food.
Materials and Method
a. The materials used for this activity can be purchased at local grocery or drug
stores.
a. Pack of sunflower seeds
b. Small cups to collect the sunflower seeds
c. Food tongs
d. Clothes pins
e. Large hair clips
f. Binder clips
g. Chopsticks or skewer sticks
h. Chip clips
i. Tweezers
j. Small hair clips
k. Paper to record data
l. Timer
b. With seven (7) groups of three or more (3+), each group will represent a beak.
Spread the sunflower seeds evenly on a large table. Each person will have a
cup to collect the sunflower seeds one by one. You may only pick up one
sunflower seed at a time! Using a timer set the timer to one (1) minute. Within
one minute, each individual will use their beak to collect sunflower seeds until
the timer goes off. Once the time goes off, everyone counts their sunflower
seeds they’ve collected. The top three (3) lowest sunflower collectors will lose
their beaks and be replaced with the top three (3) highest beaks.
Example: The three individuals with the lowest collected sunflower seeds
have the following beaks: chopstick, tweezers, and chip clip. The top three
highest collected sunflower seeds have the following beaks: tongs, tweezers,
and large hair clip. The lowest beaks get taken away and their beaks are
replaced or reproduced with the highest beaks. Tweezers were in both groups,
so tweezers stay while chopstick and chip clip are replaced with tongs and
large hair clip. This process continues for five rounds. If any of the beaks go
extinct you may add small hair clips for a mutation.
In the process collect your data using a table; there will be five (5) rounds for
the activity.
Results
a. Collected Data from experiment
b. Bar Graph of Data
8
7
6
Beginning
5
Round 1
4
Round 2
3
Round 3
Round 4
2
Round 5
1
0
Tongs
Chip
Clips
Lg. Hair
Clips
Binder Tweezers Clothes
Clips
Pins
Chop
sticks
Sm. Hair
Clips
c. The results that took place in the classroom can be seen with the data and the
graph. In the beginning the beaks were given out at random selection. Almost
all of the beaks stay near their beginning number. As you can see, clothespins
almost went extinct, so a mutation occurred, the small hairclips. In the bar
graph you can see small hairclips showed for rounds 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Conclusion
a. My prediction that tongs will collect the most sunflower seeds is supported
from this experiment.
b. As you can see in the bar graph, the tongs had the most successful beaks
compared to other beaks. On round 2 and 4 it had the most and highest count
of beaks, but the other rounds like 3 and 5, it evened with chip clips, large hair
clips, and tweezers.
c. Possible errors that could impact the results is speed, it depends on the
individual and their beak, if they have a beak that’s able to collect a sunflower
seed with no problem, it depends on how fast they are willing to collect the
seeds. Some individuals may be slow, moderate, or fast.
d. Replication of this experiments varies on the individuals, the individuals that
had tongs for beaks were fast and competitive. There are other beaks that
neared the same amount of beaks compared to tongs.
Discussion
a. The scientific method is a step-by-step research that answers an educated
question or hypothesis. Before conducting a research or experiment, it’s
important to do research. Doing research will help guide your experiment to
others tested hypothesis. After doing research, you should create an
experiment that will strongly test your hypothesis. While you’re conducting
the experiment you should be collecting data. At the end of the experiment
you compare your hypothesis to the data. If the data supports or rejected your
hypothesis, you can conduct the same experiment or readjust
b. There are endless fields that use the scientific method:
i.
Dentists, if you have a gum disease the dentist, can track back to
where you started getting the disease and can help you minimize
the growth of the disease. It may work for the patient and it may
not.
ii.
Food marketers, they’re always conducting experiments all the
time. To see which ingredient sells more than the other.
c. The experiment showed my prediction was tested with the data chart and I
was able to analyze the data, I was able to determine if my prediction was
falsifiable or testable. In the end I concluded my hypothesis was supported, in
the experiment I did, it may not be the same with other experiments, testing it
again could give the similar or different results.
d. The theory of evolution by natural selection is process that happens in
environments. “All species are capable of producing offspring at a faster rate
than food supplies increase” (pg. 40). With that in mind, how are all of the
species are going to be able to live? The answer is they don’t, not all species
are going to make it with low food supplies. Competition happens in all
environments and it depends on what traits species have that will either help
them survive in the environment or will barley allow them to obtain food.
Depending on the environment, species with favorable traits will gain
reproductive success, meaning the unfavorable species will decrease in
population and the favorable species will produce offspring. As favorable
traits accumulate through producing, a mutation will occur. The adaptation to
the environment will also influence the species.
e. This experiment was a good activity to show the theory of natural selection. It
had a range of beaks that varied in each round. Depending on the beak and the
individual, different amount of effort needed to gain a sunflower seed. The
shape and size of the sunflower seed determined which beak worked best to
be gathered. The pace on the individuals also determined which beak
reproduced successfully. The faster the individual who gathered the seeds, the
more beaks of the successful one. In round 2, a mutation occurred. It was due
to favored traits being collected into one species over time. In this experiment,
nature favored tongs; therefore they produce more offspring than the other
beaks. The others did well except for less favored beaks; binder clips and
clothespins, their numbers decreased towards the end.
References
Grant, Peter R. "Finch Beak Data Sheet." PBS. PBS, 1986. Web. 07 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_01.html>.
"Adaptive Radiation: Darwin's Finches." PBS. PBS, 2001. Web. 04 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/01/6/l_016_02.html>.
Jurmain, Robert, Lynn Kilgore, and Wenda Trevathan. Human Origins. 9th ed. Mason:
Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.