Genetic Drift Experiment: A Experiment To Study Two Factors Of Natural Selection

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Introduction: The main purpose of this lab was simply to study two factors of Natural Selection: Genetic Drift and Fertility. The first of these factors in the study was Genetic Drift. In this section of the lab, there was one main question to answer: What effect does population size has on random mechanisms? For this question, I hypothesized that if the population is smaller, then the random mechanisms will have a greater effect on the populations. I believed that this was because basic math principles would allude to the idea that any bad random mechanism to a small population would harm a greater percent than a larger population. With a greater portion of their population gone, then the amount of turtles reproducing would lessen significantly. …show more content…

In the Genetic Drift Experiment, I was unable to learn much. This is mostly because in the second sub-experiment, I was only able to record one of ten trials. The directions stated to not record any extinctions that happened after 500 generations. Only one of the trials fit the requirements. Therefore, I could not thoroughly compare the two sets of data. However, I can draw from one of the readings to support my hypothesis. Dawkins states that all living things result from genes creating “survival machines” in order to ensure their survival (Dawkins, blah blah). If these survival machines have a bigger population, then they can continue to pass on their survival genes even if a terrible random mechanism takes out a large chunk of their population. This is because even though it kills off a large portion; there is still a large population left to reproduce. For the second experiment, I had three hypotheses. The first was that a population with a higher fertility rate will be less likely to become extinct. The data on this did not back up my hypothesis. Instead, as one can see in the data above and attached in the packet, any group, large or small, has the advantage of not going extinct as long as they have a higher fertility rate than another competing group. After giving this some thought, I have found that this makes a lot of sense and can be backed up by the reading regarding Darwin’s finches. In the newer study of his finches, they have found that those who were able to survive drastic changes and continued to reproduce were the ones who evolved to keep their species alive for longer. The next sub-experiment had required another hypothesis: if the size of the difference in fertility is slightly higher, then that will become more apparent overtime. This hypothesis can be proven true my referring to the tables that I have listed above. In the tables, it is

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