Natural Selection in Medium Ground Finches: Analyzing Beak Depth Data
In this assignment, you will analyze data from a real-world example of natural selection involving the medium ground finch on the Galápagos Islands. A severe drought changed the availability of food, which affected the survival and reproduction of finches with different beak depths. You will use data and graphs to identify which genetic traits increased or decreased in frequency and explain why these changes occurred.
Group 1
Answer the following questions based on your understanding of natural selection and the information provided about the medium ground finch population before and after the drought.
Question 1a
How has the medium ground finch population changed after the drought?
Question 1b
Why do you think the Grants wanted to look at beak depth before and after the drought?
Group 2
Now, use your knowledge of genetics and inheritance to make predictions about the next generation of finches after the drought.
Question 2a
If the finches that survived reproduced, predict what the distribution of beak depths of the offspring would look like. How would this compare to the beak depth of the offspring hatched before the drought?
Group 3
Study the graphs showing the distributions of beak depths in finch offspring from 1976 (before the drought) and 1978 (after the drought).
Caption: Distributions of beak depths of fully grown offspring hatched in 1976 and 1978 respectively. In the 1976 data on the bird population samples, the range of beak depth (mm) ranges from 7.3 mm to 11.3 mm, with a median beak depth just past 8.8 mm and the mode at 8.8 mm beak depth. In the 1978 data on the bird population samples, the range of beak depth (mm) ranges from 7.3 mm to 11.3 mm, with a median beak depth just under 9.8 mm and the mode at 9.8 mm beak depth.
Question 3a
Compare the beak depth distributions of the 1976 and 1978 offspring. What do you observe? What does this tell you about which genetic traits increased or decreased in frequency after the drought?
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