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Evolution Lab

Fermin Jimenez

University of Phoenix

BIO/101: Principles of Biology

Cassundra Flemister-White

June 7, 2010

Evolution by Natural Selection

The process of natural selection can be associated primarily by Charles Darwin; however, thoughts and concerns have been around for much before Darwin himself. The basics of the evolutionary theory are depicted during the evolution of natural selection experiment. Natural selection for evolution can be identified during the experiment through patterns of living finches on Darwin and Wallace Island (Simon & Reece, 2010).

Introduction

The evolution lab allows the user to manipulate biological and environmental parameters of the experiment on Darwin and Wallace islands. The purpose of the experiment is to determine the influences of beak sizes for a population of finches and how biological and environmental factors relate to the natural selection process

Three categories of plant growing seeds serve as the primary source of food for the finches. Three categories of seeds comprise the seeds found on the islands including soft seeds that produce best under wet climates. Seeds that are intermediate in hardness come from those plants that do well under moderate precipitation, and hard seeds produce from those plants that do best in drought conditions.

Biological parameters to include clutch size, the initial beak size, and the size of population can be changed in this experiment. Precipitation and the size of the island can also be changed in this experiment as the user can observe changes in the size of population and the distribution of beak sizes over a period of time. When the biological and environmental parameters are changed analyzing the effects of...