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Title

ANTH 1020 Lab Report on Darwins Finches for E-Portfolio


Introduction
1. Published Literature
A) Adaptive radiations are particularly informative for understanding the ecological and
genetic basis of biodiversity. Those causes are best identified in young radiations, as they
represent the early stages of diversification when phenotypic transitions between species
are small and interpretable and extinctions are likely to be minimal. Darwins finches are
a classic example of such a young adaptive radiation. They have diversified in beak sizes
and shapes, feeding habits and diets in adapting to different food resources (Jonas).
Adaptive radiation is when a species diversifies quickly. This article goes through many
studies and research that they did to explain how genome re-sequencing and interspecific
gene flow could have advanced diversification.
B) One of the clearest examples of divergence is found in the evolution of beak size and
shape in birds that have colonized various archipelagosConcepts such as divergence,
homology, and homoplasy play a central role in evolutionary theory. (Panini) These
finches adapt to their environment fairly quickly.
2. Hypothesis
A) My initials hypotheses was that tweezers would increase in frequency in population over
time. I also believed that chopsticks would do the opposite and decrease in frequency.
B) I figured tweezers would do the best since the seeds were small and tweezers are the
easiest to use. Chopsticks, I figured, would do the worst since they seemed to be the
hardest ones to use.
Materials and Methods
I) Materials used

A) Chopsticks
B) Clothes pins
C) Large hair clips
D) Small hair clips
E) Tweezers
F) Binder clips
G) Chip clips
H) Tongs
II) Activity
A) In this experiment, the students were required to pick up as many sunflower seeds as they
could using their tool to do so. They could only pick one seed up at a time. Movement to
another location was allowed. Each round lasted for one minute. At the end of this
minute, students counted how many seeds they got. The three lowest students scores, the
losers, would get their tool taken away and it would represent a death in a specie (e.g.,
if there were five chopsticks in the beginning of a round and one lost at the end of the
minute, there would only be four chopsticks competing in the next round). The three
highest students scores, the winners, would pass along another one of their tools onto
the loser, representing heredity to offspring (e.g., five chopsticks would be raised to six
chopsticks competing). This was done for five rounds after the initial round. On round
number two, a mutation, the tongs, was added; mainly because a student joined the
classroom.

Results

Activity
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Initial

Round 01

Round 02

Round 03

Round 04

Chopsticks

Clothes Pins

Large Hair Clips

Small Hair Clips

Tweezers

Binder Clips

Chips Clips

Tongs

Round 05

Chopsticks decreased, going from five to two. Clothes pins decreased, going from five to two.
Large hair clips increased, going from five to seven. Small hair clips decreased, going from five
to four. Tweezers increased, going from five to 12. Binder clips decreased, going from five to
two. Chip clips increased, going from four to five. Tongs, once added, stayed stable; did not
increase or decrease.

Conclusion
I) My initial hypothesis was correct.
II) My initial hypothesis was correct seeing that the tweezers increased to 12 and that the
chopsticks decreased to two.
III) Another student came in during round two, which could have altered the results had they not
come in. An error could have been made in a students counting or integrity in their counting.
IV) My hypothesis could be wrong in other classes experiments since their data would be
different and the testing group is different.
Discussion
The theory of evolution is by natural selection is: favorable variations increase in frequency in a
population over time. The four underlying assumptions are:
A) Natural biological variation
a. (un)favorable and neutral
i. Depended upon the food availability, quickness of picking up seeds, and
tension in the hand, and which beak type was given to who determined if
you would be (un)successful.
B) Inheritance
a. The three weakest birds died, no longer being able to pass down their genes. The
three strongest birds were able to pass their genes down to their offspring.
C) Competition
a. Those in the back, in the beginning, had to travel to the front of the class to have
the ability to get more seeds. Over time, this caused the back row to have more
seeds than the front row. The quicker the hand, the more seeds youd be able to
get over those you were competing against before they took the seeds away from
you.
D) Individuals with favorable variation are more likely to survive and have more offspring
a. This was all dependent on the person wielding the tool

i. Some could use chopsticks better than others, or others could use tweezers
better than others.
1. This class seemed to have an easier time using tweezers, and when
this got inherited down, more people had the opportunity to have
more seeds and thus having a greater chance to pass down their
genes to another.
References
Jonas Berglund, Lamichhaney, Sangeet, Markus S. Almen, etc. "Evolution of Darwin's
Finches and Their Beaks Revealed by Genome Sequencing." Nature. Macmillan Publishers, 11
Feb. 2015. Web. <http://goo.gl/MMD0Ig>.
Parini, Mauricio R. "Theoretical Notes Pattern and Process in the Evolution of Learning."
American Psychological Association, Inc., 2002. Web. <http://goo.gl/QGeuxK>.

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