Warm Up 9 is due Wednesday, March 26, 2003 at 9:30 am.

The following three questions refer to material you were to read in preparation for class. Please read this week's notes and book pages before answering this Warm Up! Each WarmUp worth 3 points if answered on time and must be submitted via the web.

QUESTION 1: What does the term Survival of the Fittest mean? How does the environment influence the survival of an organism?

From cole: Q1 = Survival of the Fittest refers to the living organism competing for natural resources which are limited, so the organism that is most suited to the environment stays alive the longest and tends to have the most offspring. The environment plays a large role in this process, since the resources that organisms need to stay alive are found in the environment.

From Erica: Q1 = Survival of the fittest means that those best suited for their enviornment will grow and thrive and pass their traits to their offspring. Most organisms have to have specific habitats in order to live, so the enviornment really effects the survival of an organism.

From Smalls: Q1 = Survival of the fittest means that the thing that is best fitted for its surroundings will survive the best. The environment influences the survival of an organism becasuse if an organism is in an environment that best suits it then it will survive longer than one that is not.

A lot of people wrote: Q1 = "Survival of the fittest means that the strongest will survive". Is this true? Let's talk about it!!!

From mustang: Q2 = Natural selection is the outcome of differences in survival and reproduction among individuals that differ in details of heritable traits. Gene mutations are a small-scale change in the nucleotide sequence of a DNA molecule. So, gene mutations relate to natural selection because individuals that differ in details of heritable traits may have gone through gene mutations. (actually i have no clue...that was a guess...could you explain this in class???)

From ocoee: Q2 = Natural selection is the process by which individuals’ inherited abilities are more or less closely matched to resources available in their environment, giving those with greater "fitness" a better chance of survival and reproduction. Gene mutations relate to natural selection in that whether the mutation is neutral, or harmful depends on the circumstances and the environment just like natural selection depends on the environment.

From Dr. Marrs: Good answers! Natural Selection is the mechanism of evolution. "Nature" (the environment) preserves organisms with favorable variations (in that environment), resulting in a differential reproductive success of those organisms with the favorable variations, and a passing on of these traits to the next generation. Through natural selection, those traits in a population that allow for the best adaption to that environment increase in frequency relative to less well-adapted forms over a number of generations. The difference in survival and reproduction is not due to chance, but having a favorable variation .

Survival of the Fittest: is the result of evolution by natural selection. Individuals that happen to be most suited to the environment ("fit") are the ones that tend to reproduce are whose traits are preserved in nature.

From erica: Q3 = Simply put, we are doing the selecting, and nature isnt. We take the traits that we want and we put them togeather.

From Crispy: Q3 = Artifical selection is where you introduce what would not naturally mate or reproduce to obtain desired charateristics of two seperate organisms. Example exotic colored roses. Tangarines. Mules. Bulldogs.

From BustaBrent: Q3 = It's artificial selection because we are determining how well this species is going to survive in its environment. Maybe one day we'll create the perfect human being. Oh wait they already did and its me. MUHAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAA

From the Evolution: the PBS series: "Artificial selection is a process where humans breed animals and cultivate crops to ensure that future generations have specific desirable characteristics. In artificial selection, breeders select the most desirable variants in a plant or animal population and selectively breed them with other desirable individuals. The forms of most domesticated and agricultural species have been produced by artificial selection; it is also an important experimental technique for studying evolution."

From our buddy Charles Darwin: "It is wonderful what the principle of selection by man, that is the picking out of individuals with any desired quality, and breeding from them, and again picking out, can do. Even breeders have been astounded at their own results. . . . Man, by his power of accumulating variations, adapts living beings to his wants -- may be said to make the wool of one sheep good for carpets, of another for cloth, &c."

Animals and plants produced by artificial selection
Dogs and artificial selection

Q4 = Can you give an internet source regarding natural selection? An excellent site: Evolution: the PBS series
Q4 = When the word mutation is used it confuses me because when I hear mutation I think of festering or cancer and here it is used in an okay way.
From Dr. Marrs: Mutations are just differences at the genetic level between 2 individuals - they happen all the time - and most are 'neutral'! However, if the environment that a population lives in changes, one organism may have a survival advantage over another just due to these slight chances, and may have a differential reproductive success becuase of it!

Biq Questions:
Q4 = Can evolution go along with the Christian creation story? Are there truths in both theories that are accepted by believers of both theories?
Q4 = I am not sure if I believe in evolution. If I believe that God created everything, does that throw the idea of evolution out?
From Dr. Marrs: Many people, scientists and non-scientists, both accept the evidence for evolution and have a deep faith in a higher power. Read Pope John Paul's 1996 Statement on Evolution !

Q4 = Hmmmmmmmmmm.....I really don't believe that humans came from apes. Is this still believed in the scientific community? The reason I don't believe this is that there had to be many different stages of change between the ape stage and human stage, and well, the apes are still here, and the humans are here, where are all of the in between stages? And why did some of the apes decide to evolve when others did not? This just doesn't seem to make sense to me.
From Dr. Marrs: Did we "evolve from monkeys"? Scientists have collected evidence about the incredible homology at the genetic, biochemical, and anatomical level between primates and propose that humans, apes, chimpanzees all share a common ancestor that existed 5 to 8 million years ago. Shortly thereafter, the species diverged into two separate lineages, or family trees, one of which developed into gorilla and chimp species, and the other into early human ancestors called hominids.

Thanks for all your other comments:
Q4 = I think evolution and natural selection are very interesting and is by far the best thing we study throughout the year!!
Q4 = All I have to say is that I like the topic of evolution because there is so much to be said about the issue.
Q4 = There are many things that we still do not understand and may never understand. I have my own religious beliefs and that is how I live. I will never be convinced that God did not create the heavens and the earth or man.
Q4 = "This is evolution: the monkey, the man, then the gun". -Marilyn Manson
I haven't quite figured out what that's supposed to mean, but the song popped in my head when I saw the question.
Q4 = My only hope is that evolution and natural selection will evolve us from the stupid people in the world!

The text of this "What is Biology Good For" exercise is copyrighted under the name of Dr. Kathleen A. Marrs, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003. There are no restrictions on its use by educators or by non-profit institutions as long as its content not modified, proper copyright acknowledgement is retained, and this statement is not removed.