Kim, Kylie

Anthropology 5
January 16, 2022
Anthropology 5
Problem Set # 1
Winter 2022

1. To answer this set of questions you will need to view the short video called Evolution of coat color in
pocket mice (posted in the Jan 10 – Jan 16 block on the course website).

A. The mice live in two adjacent habitats and they (the mice) systematically differ in at least one trait;
what is that trait?
Biologist Michael Nachman explains that mice who live in different habitats will differ in color; those that
reside on dark rocks are found to be black, while those that live on the surface of the sandy desert are
found to be blonde. The mice have evolved to be as dark as the rock in order to conceal them from
predators.

B. What geological feature differs between these two environments?

The two environments that the mice inhabit are dark molten rock from volcanic eruptions and the desert
sands. After hardening, the molten rock adopts a dark black color while the sand always remains a light
tan color.

C. Are predators involved in some way in causing the mice to differ between these two habitats? Explain.
Yes, the predators are the main reason that the mice have adopted different traits depending on their
environment. As discussed in the video, the mice do not have a specific preference for either a rocky or
sandy habitat; instead, their evolutionary advancements are driven by a need to survive. The change in
color of mice is driven by predators weaning out the mice who do not blend in with their background, and
therefore allowing advantageous traits to take over throughout evolutionary time.

D. Because traits change over evolutionary time, it is useful to be able to talk about what came first and
what (changes) came later. For any given case, the “ancestral condition” is what came first. Based on the
sequence of environmental changes described in the video, what do you think the ancestral coat-color
phenotype was in these mice, and what change came later?
The “ancestral condition” of the mice was lighter colored fur, which allowed them to easily camouflage
with the desert sands. A volcanic eruption resulted in over 40 miles of molten rock dispersed across the
desert, and after 1,000 years the pocket mice have adjusted to this environmental change through the
adaptation of darker, black colored fur.

E. Natural selection is differential reproduction of heritable elements due to better or worse fit with the
prevailing environment. If natural selection is occurring in this example, what are the heritable elements?
If natural selection is not occurring, how would you explain the change?
Natural selection is occurring in the pocket mice species, which is evident through the overall adaptation
of their coloring from light to dark fur. In this case, the heritable elements of the mice are the mutations
that occurred to result in dark fur. The gene Mc1r is the heritable mutation that rapidly spread throughout
the later generations of the mice, and over time this has resulted in an entire population of dark mice
living on the molten rock.
F. The video suggests this change (the change you described in 1A) happened more than once. Wherever
this change happened, were the resulting phenotypes the same? Were the resulting genotypes the same?
Explain how this pair of answers makes sense in terms of your theory of evolution by natural selection.
The resulting phenotypes and genotypes were not the same between mice from two different habitats.
Although mice from different areas looked almost identical, the Mc1r mutation resulted in the darker
coloring of mice who lived on the molten rocks. This mutation of the genes changed the observable
characteristics of the mice, and proved to be a more advantageous trait. As described through Darwin’s
theory of natural selection, those who adopt advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce,
explaining why almost every single pocket mouse is now dark colored.

G. Why do the mice on the lava flows have white bellies?

Biologist Michael Nachman explains that all of the darker mice have a white belly because there is no
evolutionary selection for dark underbellies. Since almost all predators of the mice have a view from
above (e.g. owls, hawks, snakes, etc.), there is no risk from having a light colored underbelly.

2. This slide (from Lecture 1) shows the frequency distribution of human birth weights (in yellow, labeled
on the left y-axis); and it also shows the percentage of infants of various birth weights who died in their
first month life (in red, labeled on the right y-axis). The graph shows that both small and large babies
were more likely to die than average-sized babies—a clear example of stabilizing selection. These data
are now about 90 years old, but I chose older data for a reason; you’ll see.

A. Look at the red curve; 90 years ago, did birth weight affect an infant’s chance of dying? What infants
were most and least at risk of dying? Why were infants of certain birth weights more likely to die than
infants of other birth weights?
Yes, birthweight severely affects an infant’s chance of dying. The graph shows that children born within
7-9 pounds have a very high survival rate, at about 2% mortality. However, children born too below or too
above the average rate, at 1-5 pounds and 10-11 pounds, have a much higher chance of dying, with
underweight children being the most subject to mortality. According to Darwin, offspring resemble their
parents, meaning the underweight and overweight children likely adopted a weak parental gene that
resulted in the increased mortality of their children. These traits do not foster reproductive success, and
will be more likely to die out over generations, which explains why such a low percent of the population
are born with undesirable weight ranges.

B. Thinking in terms of evolution, could the shape of the red curve explain the shape of the yellow curve?
Yes, the shape of the red curve demonstrates an almost perfect mirror of the yellow curve. The peak and
trough of the graph lineup so precisely because most human infants tend to be the perfect size that
maximizes survival. Babies are most likely to survive when they’re born between 7-9 pounds, meaning
they will pass on those same advantages traits to their offspring and eventually result in most surviving
babies being in that same weight range.

C. Above the graph I said, “In answering the following questions, assume that birth weight is influenced
by genes.” If that were not true, would that change your thinking regarding 2B?
Yes, if birth weight was not influenced by genes then that would mean reproductive success is random
and does not take advantageous traits into account. If this were the case, the red curve would not mirror
the yellow curve.

D. Two medical services have become much more widely available in the last 90 years: Cesarean section
and Neonatal Intensive Care Units. What does each service do? Given that, how might the Cesarean
section and Neonatal Intensive Care Units have changed the shape of the red (mortality) curve?
A Cesarean section is the process of surgically removing a baby from the mother’s womb, and the
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit offers intensive treatment to premature or underweight babies. Both of these
services are meant to save either overweight or underweight babies from fatalities. These services have
undoubtedly changed the shape of the red curve on the graph because there would be lower mortality
percentages, therefore bringing the red curve lower.

E. Would that change in the red curve (that you just described) be expected to change the yellow
(frequency) curve in any way? Why or why not?
Yes, because more surviving parents would carry the gene that results in underweight or overweight
babies, they would transfer that gene to their offspring, and the cycle would continue. This means that a
higher percentage of the population would give birth to babies at heavier and lighter weights.

3. Let’s consider another evolutionary example, from Chapter 2 in your Human Evolution book.
In the second lizard study (pages 21 -22 of your textbook) you learned that some lizards belonging to the
species Anolis carolinensis have lately had to deal with new competitors belonging to a related species,
Anolis sagrei.

A. Populations of A. carolinensis that were invaded by A. sagrei show certain phenotypic changes: What
changes?
The size of A. carolinesis’s toepad area increased, and so did the amount of adhesive scales that they had.
This was the result of the A. carolinensis being placed onto finer branches. If the A. sagrei did not invade
and the lizards shifted onto higher branches, they would have fewer adhesive scales.

B. What is the difference between evolution and development?

Evolution occurs due to a change in genetic composition which can be inherited over generations.
Development, however, can occur in a shorter time period and does not descend from a genetic change,
unlike evolution. Instead development relies on the result of a situation.

C. Consider the critical experiment described on page 22 of your textbook. What would the result of that
experiment have been if the change you described in your answer to 3A was a developmental change; and
what would it have been if the change was an evolutionary change? OK, then, what kind of change was
it?
If this critical experiment was a developmental change, then newly harvested eggs would produce A.
carolinensis traits from their ancestral condition. If it were an evolutionary change, then the offspring
would resemble their parents; larger toe pads and more adhesive scales.