BIOL 1082 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Meiosis, Sexual Reproduction, Genotype Frequency
Document Summary
Genes within populations (reading: concepts 23. 1-23. 2: describe the interactions between beak size in darwin"s finches, their food, and climate changes in their environment, explaining how this is an example of evolution by natural selection. There was a long period of drought, which was detrimental to the birds (finches) living on the island. During the drought, small, soft seeds were in short supply. The finches mostly fed on large, hard seeds that were more plentiful. Birds with larger, deeper beaks were better able to crack and eat these larger seeds, and they survived at a higher rate than finches with smaller beaks. Since beak depth is an inherited trait in these birds, the average beak depth in the next generation was greater than it had been pre-drought population. The finch population has evolved by natural selection: explain the importance of variation for evolution, describing the causes and measures of variation in populations. Without genetic variation, evolution would not be possible.
