Thoughts w/ Casey

When evolution and mating come to mind, my brain immediately goes to the male trying to impress the female and the female having the ability to choose a male mate. However, this is not always the case, as displayed in the video of the Microphis deocata , where female courtship is actually taking place. In the video, it appears almost appears as if the female is leading a dance and the male is nonchalantly following her lead. The staggering coloration and size of the female pipefish's body is what seems to me to be the factor that leads to the decision to mate by the male. In addition, I could see the way in which the female "dances" around the male playing a role in this decision as well. Those are the two most significant female biological characteristics that enable the dazzling array of courtship for the male.  On the other hand, one might ask, "What is the evolutionary purpose behind this role-reversal in this species of pipefish?". My mind immediately focus...

Option 1: Even though most people I come into contact with think my mustache is repulsive when I decide to grow it out, I love my facial hair and in the honor of "No Shave November" coming up, I have decided to write about how a certain organism's facial hair may be beneficial for survival.  The Inca Tern  is an attractive, medium-sized bird found along the Pacific coast of South America and u nlike myself, they can actually use the power of their mustache to win mates. Sporting this whiteish upper lip accessory is a sign of good health and vitality to potential female mates. In fact, the condition of their mouser actually represents the condition of the Tern, so when a female sees a nice-looking lip caterpillar they immediately relate it to a higher fitness and this leads to further reproduction of the species. The mustachio is not male exclusive, it’s shared by the females as well. In addition, scientists have found that Inca Terns with lon...

First of all, in order to understand how genetic variation is maintained in a population, one must first identify why genetic variation is important to have in a population. Genetic diversity essentially maintains the health of a population because it includes alleles that may be valuable in resisting diseases, pests, and other stresses.  Maintaining diversity provides the population with a buffer against change, ensuring the flexibility to adapt. If the environment changes, a population that has different alleles will be better able to evolve and adapt to the new environment. In extreme situations (e.g. drought, disease epidemics) diversity could even mean resisting extinction. Now, it is appropriate to discuss why genetic variation is maintained in the population. As seen in previous R exercises, mutations may arise in a population that could lead to further genetic diversity. Mutations such as double-stranded breaks, point mutations, and DNA polymerase mutations c...

Not going to lie, before beginning this course, I thought I had it all figured out. I thought I knew everything I needed to know about evolution because I had taken similar courses before and studied for the MCAT all summer. Boy, was I wrong! There are many other aspects to evolution than I originally thought. I have at least heard about the subjects that have been taught in this course so far, but I have never learned about them so in-depth and with specific examples. The "cave mollies" R exercise was very interesting because one could see the effects of inbreeding in the population as a result of the limited carrying capacity. I also learned more about inbreeding and that sometimes breeding individuals with similar traits can actually be beneficial for a population. This process is called assortative mating. In my first blog post, I said that evolution is like the fluid mosaic model of the cell membrane, meaning that organisms are constantly changing due to environmental co...