The Hunger Games

1)In this lab, we did seven rounds of competition between three different types of species, which are stupmys, knucklers, and pinchers. The lab simulated natural selection by having the individuals with favorable trait survive and reproduce while the individuals with unfavorable trait die. It also simulated evolution as the alleles frequencies change over time.  

2) The knucklers had the best phenotypes because they were able to produce largest amount of offspring.

3) I know that population evolved because the allele frequencies changed over time. For example, during the first two rounds, the frequency for A allele dropped dramatically from 52% to 31%, whereas the frequency rose from 48% to 69%. The frequencies for both alleles continue to change throughout different rounds of the experiment. In the end, the frequencies for A allele change from the original 52% to 40%, while the frequencies for a allele change from the original 48% to 60%, causing a shift in the gene pool.

4) Randomness in this lab includes the food distribution and special skills that individuals have. Something that is not random includes the feeding styles and the mating perferences. The random events affect the evolution by making certain individuals more skilled or lucky at getting food, which creates changes in numbers of surviving organisms and change in allele frequencies. The non random events cause change in allele frequencies based on the usefulness of the traits of the species.

5) The results would have been different if the food was larger or smaller. If the food is larger, the stumpeys might have an advantage over the knucklers and pinchers because stumpys’ traits allow to pick up something big and heavy quicker than the others. If the food is smaller, the pinchers might pick up food way faster than knucklers and stumpys. The change in food’s size has an great impact in nature. It causes some species to have better advantage as others’ traits become less useful.

6) Without the incomplete dominance, or the knucklers, the big A allele would disappear becuase the pinchers would dominate the population, causing the stumpeys to die.

7) Natural selection causes evolution.

8) Individuals used their hoodies,cheat, and push people to increase their likelihood of survivial and reproduction. This causes changes in allele frequency of the population. In nature, individuals or groups develop their own methods to increase the chance of survival.

9) The population evolves, not individuals. The nature acts on the phenotype because it rewards those with better traits.

10) A question that I have is that, how did knucklers end up with more offspring than pinchers.