Allison's evolution blog

An organism that I have always been fascinated by is the great white shark. Don't get it twisted though, while I am fascinated I have always been scared of having an encounter when in the ocean. I have always been fascinated by these amazing creatures because of their size and power. Great white sharks usually grow to be an average of 15 feet long and 2.5 tons or greater. The really big great whites can even grow to be as long as 20 feet!! That's insane. Great white sharks mouths are lined with 300 serated, triangular teeth which are lined up in several rows. They even have organs that can detect electromagnetic fields generated by animals. Great white sharks have some amazing adaptations as well. Great whites boys have adapted into a torpedo shape in order to reduce the drag in the water. Great whites also have a fairly symmetrical body, and this is thought to allow them to move through what at a more efficient rate. Sources: https://oceantracks.org/library/spe...

Selection is often assumed to eliminate genetic variation. So, why is genetic variation then not eroded over time? Genetic variation has not eroded over time because there are many different factors that affect it other than selection. We have learned about a lot of different ways that genetic variation is maintained in class from the past few modules. For example, quantitative traits which are controlled by multiple traits and the environment. Not all quantitative traits are normally distributed because one trait may be dominant and the other may not be. Another factor that affects genetic variation is drift. If there is strong genetic drift, this will lead to small populations, and this swamps out selection. Genetic drift is very different than selection because it does not lead to adaptation unlike selection which increases the average fitness across populations. There is also a major difference in the selection on dominant vs. Recessive traits. Dominant alleles reap advantages righ...

So far I have learned so much in evolution class, and I have also really enjoyed the layout of this class. I have learned that I really enjoy the discussions in small groups because it helps me to better understand the topics.   I went back to my first blog post where I defined evolution, and I said that "evolution as a change over time in a species". I went into more details with what this meant to me and gave examples as well. Since the post, I have learned so much more about what evolution is and I would change my initial response by adding more details of other factors involved in evolution. I learned that the modern perception in evolution takes more factors into consideration such as how important the environment is to causing differences in fitness. The differences in fitness can then lead to change in the generations to follow. I would also add in that mutation is the main cause of variation that can cause evolutionary change. Evolution can be very small or very large...

       Mutation rates are rather variable for different organisms, depending on if the organism is a multi or unicellular organism, and genome size is also very important. So, I think that mutation rates do evolve since they are having changes over time. Mutation rates line up with Darwin's four postulates which in include: 1)  Individuals in a population vary in their traits, 2)  Some of that trait variation is inherited from parents to their offspring, 3)  More offspring are produced in every generation than can possibly survive, 4)  Successful survival and reproduction of those offspring is not random but dependent on the traits they inherited from their parents. Mutation rates evolving can be associated with Darwin's postulates because mutation is the main cause of genetic variation.        I am thinking that high and low mutation rates can be adaptive if there are extreme conditions in the environment. I believe we di...

   Technically speaking, fitness is the quantitative representation of natural selection. There are many variables that have an affect on fitness. Some of these variables include environmental factors such as resources, competition, etc. at the given time.  Fitness cannot properly be measured for an entire population because it is too abstract. If you go out in the wild and try to measure a population, there would be no way to accurately measure and track all of a population. Fitness can be measured by fitness proxies instead. A fitness proxy can be measured by the quantity as well as the quality of offspring.       As an example, if I were to measure the fitness of a zebra in a natural environment, I would tag and track 20 moms and babies that originate from different environments in Africa. I would track the offspring as they grow up and see how many offspring they produce as one way to measure fitness. I would also compare how well they survive and if ...

I would explain evolution as a change over time in a species. There are many ways in which a species can evolve and it does not always mean that they are evolving to be better or worse off than their ancestors. Some species may evolve to be "fitter" than they were before, whether that means they gained or lost a specific trait. Species can also evolve to still have a trait, but the trait may not carry much significance to the species survival. From the class discussion last week, I have come to realize that there are many different aspects that go into what evolution is and the book has explained even different text books have different explanations of what evolution actually is.  I believe that evolution is a fact because there is evidence pointing to evolution in species. There may be some theories built off of the facts because new information is always being discovered, but it is building onto the already proven facts instead of discrediting them. In class, we discussed t...

  Hi everyone!  My name is Allison Moore and I am from Smithville, MO, which is a small town north of Kansas City. I am majoring in Biology/pre-med with a psychology minor. I hope to go to medical school someday because I am very passionate about health and helping others. I am involved in an immunology lab here at K-State, and it has really sparked my interest in the possibility of helping people with immune issues some day. Eventually, I would like to live in Colorado or on the West coast because I love all the outdoor opportunities that those places offer. I am very fascinated about many different topics in evolution and biology. I am particularly fascinated about how humans will be predicted to change and adapt in the future, especially with all the current health issues our society is facing. I hope to gain a lot of knowledge and insight to how humans and other organisms have evolved. I am nervous but intrigued in how to learn coding and hopefully be able to apply th...