Evolution Lab

Finch Beak and Environmental Experiment

Candice

BIO/101

July/12/2012

Joan Kane

Introduction

Evolution has been a part of the circle of life for millions of years. In order for this to occur, adaptation takes over and modifies characteristics and features of particular species in order to survive in their change of environment. Using an evolution simulator, an experiment was conducted to show the changes in beak sizes between finches from two different islands. If the precipitation in the environment decreases, the growth of the finch beaks will increase.

Materials

* Computer

* To access the evolution lab link located on the student website

Methods and Procedures

To conduct this experiment, first click on the evolution lab link located on the student website. One will click on the button link “Start Lab”. Various tabs are provided in the evolution simulator known as Parameter Sliders. These parameter sliders are used to changes the size and amounts of different parameters given, such as the size in finch beak, the size of each island, and the amount of precipitation each island receives. In order to obtain accurate information, one must understand the variables used in this experiment. The independent variable would be changing the level of precipitation; the dependent variable would be continuously viewing the changes in years, and the controlled variable consist of; the beak size of the flinches from both Darwin, and Wallace island measured at 12mm, the variance of both birds from both island remaining at 1.00, the heritability of birds from both islands remaining at 0.70, the clutch size for birds from both island remaining at 10 eggs, the size of both islands remaining at .05 km, and the population of birds from both islands remaining at 200. The independent variable of change in precipitation level will be changed from 20cm to 0cm on Darwin Island. The precipitation level on Wallace Island will remain at 20cm. After changing the...