Forkbeaks Case Study

Forkbeaks

1. Why are some individuals more likely to die in every generation?

When an individual has less points, it will get less wildloops and die off.

2. If there was an abundance of wild loops and plenty of time for forkbeaks to hunt, what would the 11th generation look like?

The 11th generation of forkbeaks would probably average out to two beaks, as they have plenty of time to hunt for enough wildloops.

3. Why is genetic variation necessary in a population in order for natural selection to occur?

With more genetic variation, there are more “options” to be selected for. A lot of variation makes it so a species can become best adapted for an environment.

4. Did any individual forkbirds change their beak phenotype during any one generation? If this did not happen then what caused the

One of the phenotypes was poorly adapted for capturing wildloops. What is a possible explanation for why the nonadaptive alleles for this phenotype do not get removed from the population entirely over the course of many generations?

Due to the randomness of mutations, poor traits can come back into the gene pool after a number of generations.

6. Which type of forkbird had the greatest evolutionary fitness? Explain using the class data.

The four-pointed forkbird has the best suited evolutionary fitness. By the end of the activity, there were only two two-pointed forkbirds, one one-pointed forkbirds, and seventeen four-pointed forkbirds. This shows that four-pointed forkbirds have a better chance of surviving and passing on their traits.

7. Imagine that wild loops were to evolve a slippery coating and a spherical shape that required them to be “speared” through their small central opening rather than “scooped” into stomach cups. Explain how the forkbird population would change.

The forkbirds would need more points to be able to spear more wildloops at once, and get more in their stomach cups. Forkbirds with sharper and more points would have a better chance at