BIOLOGY 152 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Dung Beetle, Allele Frequency, Flexible Response
18 Feb 2017
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Horn length in dung beetles- give them less food, and you get small bettles with short horns and with lots of high quality food you get the opposite, big beetles with long horns. There would be less variation in dung beetle horn size in a scenario where dung beetle females provision their eggs more than in a scenario where dung beetles give varying amounts of provisioning to their eggs. Environmental variation crucial for variation in this trait as a predatory defense. _phenotypic plasticity- flexible response to cues from the environment (acclimatization) _the ability to be flexible has evolved (adaptation) The gallapagos iguanas evolved to eat seaweed underwater, grew shorter snouts to feed underwater, and grew claws to stick to the bottom of the sea bed, all while holding their breath for up to an hour. Mutation- not significant for changing allele frequencies, significant for creating new genetic variation.
