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14. Final Reflection

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Throughout the semester my perception of evolution did a 360. Sure I knew about Darwin and natural selection prior to taking this course as those are the bare minimum we are taught in other courses when covering evolution. I have never known about speciation, which to me was one of the most interesting parts of evolution. As for my perception of the process of science, it has deepened. I feel as though from this class I have gained a whole new dimension of science, a whole new level on the game of life if you will. From this class, I am taking with me a whole new perception of the world. I had never thought too much as to why or how different breeds of for example dogs came to be. As a dog lover, learning about mutations and genetic diversity was eye-opening showing us how certain breeds came to be. Also, in light of what is going on in the world seeing how COVID came about and how certain things affected the outcome we saw. Diving into this course I was most worried about the R exerci...
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12. Obesity, is McDonald's to blame?

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  Obesity as we all know is the condition known as when one is overweight for their height/age. There is a chart that doctors use to classify us as underweight, just right, slightly overweight, obese, and morbidly obese. Childhood obesity is at a horrific incline. What is it we have to thank for that? Think about what is the number one thing kids do in their spare time nowadays? THE DAMN PHONE. Everywhere you go you see children on tablets and phones, watching youtube and all sorts of things. Don't get me wrong sure screen time doesn't hurt here and there but damn, some of these kids only age 2-3 are obsessed with these devices. These devices have increased our children's sedentary lifestyles. Kids don't play outside as much as we did when we were kids. Now yes, there are all sorts of dangers in today's world, but we can still encourage our kids to go run and be crazy outside with our supervision. Other factors in lifestyle changes that have contributed to obesity a...
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11. STRONGER

I think we can all conclude that life has changed in the last year. We found new skills, new interests, and new things we hate. Personally I feel like I have gained much more when it comes to knowledge and my capabilities as well as professionally. I think one of the most important things that I have learned is how important your physical and mental health really is, and how to contact media scrolling affects that. I am proud to say that I have gotten to really know myself on different levels I hadn't known I had pre-pandemic. I have realized how important it is to take a break when you feel you need a break, there is no point in killing yourself trying to do all sorts of things. It is OKAY to take a break, to feel burnt out, and to take time for yourself. Something that I overcame was that I never thought I would be able to pass online classes or really learn much at all. The first few classes were a struggle, and I would be lying if I said I didn't fail any. However, I am so ...
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10. Pipefish

Prompt: T he question for you to ponder is how does something like this evolve? With your knowledge of sexual selection theory, can you formulate a hypothesis that explains why female courtship might have evolved in this species? Is there anything about pipefish biology that might support your hypothesis? In the video attached with this discussion prompt, the female is actually courting while the male is being courted. As we are all aware usually in any species it is the male doing the courting as well as competing against other males for a mate. There could be a number of reasons as to why the opposite role has evolved in these pipefish. It could be that males had a difficult time finding mates and knowing which mates were not already spoken for. It could be that the male pipefish are the ones who carry the offspring so instead of females being courted and carrying eggs it is the males so thus the females must court for the male. Another explanation could be that these pipefish have b...
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8. Genetic Variation

  Prompt:  Selection is often assumed to eliminate genetic variation. So, why is genetic variation then not eroded over time? Based on what you have learned in the past modules, from the basic mechanisms of evolution to quantitative genetics, reflect on the diversity of mechanisms that can explain why genetic variation is maintained in populations. Selection as we all know is a huge part of evolution. Selection is what allows us to keep producing favorable traits after traits. However, the selection is what happens to allow a species to have genetic variation. Without genetic variation, we would all be the same, and all the traits would never change and we would all look and behave the same, with the exceptions of mutations. We would all have the same fatality to a particular gene, and doing any kind of research or medication trial would be pointless, as we would all have the same reaction. But as we all have seen from the world as well as in the class this is not the case at ...
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7. Neutral evolution vs. Natural selection

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Kimura's neutral theory of evolution is that mutations that occurred in a population were not products of selection. He thought these mutations was a result of genetic drift within a population. Natural selection is organisms better adapted to their environment have higher rates of survival and therefore produce more offspring within their lifetime, as their offspring will also have a good chance at survival. The natural selection shows us all the parts of evolution, the good and bad.  Kimura's neutral theory views mutations at more of a molecular level. The main difference between the two is how mutations affect the population. While natural selection sees mutations as traits either becoming more or less favorable, neutral selection sees mutations as neutral effects on a population. Knowing this, it means neutral selection biases evolution based solely on chance rather than a selection of favorable traits. What both of these theories have in common is that they both produce si...
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6.2 Inbreeding

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   I think we can all agree that inbreeding screws everything up. When inbreeding occurs it allows one or more alleles to dominate in a species, offspring after offspring. One of the benefits of inbreeding that may lead to the evolution of assertive mating is that the population would increase at a higher rate as individuals with similar phenotypes are mating. Also if the dominant phenotype is one that is favorable for their environment it will allow a species to thrive. Some of the cost of interbreeding that may have prompted the evolution of inbreeding avoidance also known as disassortative mating is that since individuals with similar phenotypes are mating, this will lead to less genetic diversity, an increase in the likelihood of fatal diseases, as well as while current generations may have a fair chance against predation, future generations may not. The reason that many organisms have seemed to favor disassortative mating over assertive mating is that the cost heavily out...
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