Hunger Games Lab Analysis

1. In this lab, we reenacted evolution that took many many years in a short period of time. It simulated natural selection and how the best of the species survive and pass on their traits.

2. The knucklers were the best phenotype because they only mated with lncukers

3. Yes, the population did evolve. I know this because it started to look more like the "winners" which were the knucklers and pinchers. The A allele frequency dropped from 52% to 30% by the end while the a allele increased from 48% to 70%.

The graph shows that the phenotypes with little a became more prominent than A.

4. The placement of food was random. It affected who was lucky enough to start next to the food because it saves them from working for it. This is similar to a genetic rift but on a smaller scale. The outcome of who died was not random because natural natural selection specifically picks off the weakest and only leaves those who can survive the best.

5. Yes, it would be very different depending on the food. The type of traits that nature selects correspond with the best way for picking up the food in the species's niche. If the food was bigger, the pinchers would have trouble picking it up and not survive while the stumps will do better with big food. In nature, the prey of a species could change also forcing their predators to adapt to them. Say birds with small beaks are the dominant ones because they can get small bugs while the big beaked birds are barely staying alive. If some event causes the bugs to grow rapidly, then the bigger beaked birds could out-eat the small beaked birds because they could hold on to them.

6. Yes, the results would be different if there was not incomplete dominance. If there wasn't, then once the stumpys were wiped out at the beginning there would be an extinction of A alleles and little a would dominate everything 100%.

7. Natural selection favors certain phenotypes and the species evolves to look more like those certain phenotypes.

8. Knucklers only wanted to mate with other knucklers or pinchers. This changed things because no one wanted to mate with the stumpys, making the A allele go away.  This is  a form of sexual selection as seen in nature, like how species only mate with who they think is the best in order for their children to survive.

9. In evolution, the population evolves. Natural selection acts on the phenotype because individuals with the weakest traits in the species do not survive, causing the genotype of the whole species to change.

10. Does disease change phenotype or genotype?