Evolution and Domestication of Animals and their Body Systems

Observation and interests:

  • Animal distributions
    • Peregrine falcon
    • Jungle
      • What kinds and how many (what is the biodiversity)
        • Diversity and evolution of predators vs prey
        • Poaching
        • Ethiopian wolf
  • Adaptations
    • Lizards
      • run on water
      • internal body systems
      • speed (slow vs. fast)
      • diet
      • closest to extinction
    • Turtles
    • Dragon fish stealthy
    • eyespots
    • Muscles move for speed
    • HR in running flying animals
    • Hunting adaptions in big cats
    • Deep water adaptations
    • Communication in jungles (sound evolutions)
    • Proboscis monkeys long noses
    • Adaptations of cells
  • Evolution
    • Diversity and evolution of predators vs prey
    • Evolution vs other aspects of changing
    • Can other animals be domesticated?
    • Competition drive evolution (wolf vs. other large predators)
    • Changes from wild to domestic animals
      • e.g. domestic animals keep some wild traits
  • Environment
    • Climate change (can we stop it and is driving evolution or exciting
      • Lizards in particular
    • Habitat
    • Disease

OUESTION:
How does evolution and domestication allow animals (e.g. lizards and canines) to change their behaviour, bodies and systems, to match their environment.

  • How do animals travel/spread across their range/world
  • If we could domesticate an animal in the future would it evolve to look different? 🦁=🐱-🐺=🐶-🐵=👩🏼
  • How do people already have pet foxes? (HOW CAN I GET ONE?) 🦊🥓🥓
    • Documentary on fox domestication
  • WHY HAVE ONLY SOME ANIMALS EVOLVED A LOT BUT OTHERS HAVE STAYED VERY SIMILAR?Like 🐺=🐶, 🦁=🐱, 🐵=👱🏻‍♀️,
    • e.g. in canine evolution
  •  How have lizards evolved?
    • e.g. tail loss…
  • How lower levels of biology change with the whole animal (e.g. cells)
    • Organs and behaviours

So after a lot of discussion…everyone chose an area of study that they would share back with the group keeping in mind the overarching

QUESTION!
How does evolution and domestication allow animals (e.g. lizards and canines) to change their behaviour, bodies and systems, to match their environment.

Below are the topics individuals chose:

Dino and Fifi: The topic of interest we identified for investigation is “How lizards evolved” we were also was interested in lizard adaptations; in particular the “Basilisk Lizards.”

AlbinoRhino:  The topic of interest I identified for investigation is canine evolution (The Domestication of Dogs).  I am  interested in finding out how “wild and vicious wolves, over time, became friendly pets”.

Timbitom and IcewhiskerThe topic we identified for investigation is canine evolution (The Domestication of Foxes).  We were interested in finding out more about the Russian geneticist,  Dmitry K. Belyaev and his attempts to create a tame fox population in the 1950’s.

Doggo4life: The topic of interest I identified for investigation is “The Ethiopian Wolf”.  I wonder how and why it evolved and crossed to Northern Africa?  I also am concerned because I believe the Ethiopian wolf is Africa’s most endangered carnivore and the world’s rarest canid.

CATattack: The topic of interest I identified for investigation is “What is DNA? and What is the role of DNA in Evolution?”.  I wonder how changes in an animal cell’s DNA (mutations) would affect future offspring.  After a “facetime” chat with Matthew I also decided to explore the role evolution had in the domestication of the household cat (my favourite animal:-)

Building a General Knowledge Based:  Before we got started on our individual investigations we needed some background information… We needed to research “about evolution”.  Below are some of the resources we used:

What is Evolution? <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhHOjC4oxh8>
Published on Jan 10, 2013 by Stated Clearly

Important ideas:
Biological evolution is any change in the heritable traits within a population across generations.”
“Common descent is the scientific theory that all living organisms on Earth are descended from a common ancestor.”

What is Natural Selection? <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SCjhI86grU>
Published on May 14, 2013 by Stated Clearly

Important ideas:
“Natural Selection is one of the main concepts found within the theory of evolution. It was discovered by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace though Darwin championed the idea in his book “On the Origin of Species”.  Natural selection can be defined as the process by which random evolutionary changes are selected for by nature in a consistent, orderly, non-random way.”

Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by.natural selection."Darwin believed that
traits that hinder survival and reproduction would disappear over generations."
"Darwin realised that the unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce could cause gradual changes in the population."
Image Source: CC (Public Domain) by George Richmond in the late 1830'sSource: Introduction to Evolution
Image Source: CC by I, Toony
Source: Introduction to Evolution
Image Source: CC by I, Toony

Next we visited the Whale Evolution Kiosk <http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/wh.kiosk.html> created by Lara Sox-Harris at San Jose State University in 2002.
This was an interactive online self-guided tutorial on the key elements of whale evolution. (anatomy, fossils, DNA, and classification).

The Phylogenetic Trees <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6uGYoqhT9w&list=PLmcSBm9AS2WbUHLR9Ldoon0uzTPU-UaPw&index=7>
Published on Oct 15, 2014 by Deanna Beals (California State University)
Another skill we needed was to learn is how to read Phylogenetic Trees. Phylogenetic Trees are used to represent hypotheses about the evolutionary relationship between species.

Phylogenetic Trees | Evolution | Khan Academy <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_XMKmFQ_w8>
Published on Aug 8, 2016 by Khan Academy
This video explains how to read and draw phylogenetic trees, or cladograms.

Ideas for next steps:
Next we had a facetime session with Matthew….he encouraged us to keep researching our topics.

  • Develop protocol for DNA extraction in the classroom (Amelia lead?)
  • Collect information on adaptations or traits that exist in your animal that make them well suited to their lifestyle (domestic or wild) and environment compared to other related animals. How did these traits arise?
  • End of January and into February – Design experiments or activities to demonstrate the process of through natural selection.

ISLAND OF ADAPTATIONS – DESIGNING A SIMULATION

Our ASPIRE Scientist, Matthew Gilbert visited RL Angus the week before Spring Break.   

Matt led our group on an exploration and simulation of how natural selection drives the evolution of adaptations. 

He explained three types of natural selection:
• Directional Selection
• Stabilizing Selection
• Diversifying Selection
Matt first collected our Shoe Size. We saw that if we were selecting shoe size for the NBA over time the bell curve would move to the right. This would be "Directional Selection" Using our own background research we identified other examples of the different kinds of Natural Selection that occurs over time.

In our activity called “Islands of Adaptation” we designed and named islands, each with different food sources and habitats. We then simulated how birds with different beak sizes would colonize each island and evolve in the process over multiple generations.  We  recorded and analyzed the data and demonstrated which type of natural selection we observed on each Island based on what food was available.

OUR ISLANDS AND FOOD

Island Food
Beak Size / Shape
Island One: Ooga Booga island
Stabalizing Selection

Stabilizing selection in evolution is a type of natural selection that favours the average individuals in a population. (Birds with medium sized beaks)
Can you identify the different birds?
The Thin Beak Bird
The Medium Beak Bird
The Large Wide Beak Bird


Types of Food:
Hard Shelled (Smarties, Jelly Beans and Mints), Soft Shelled (Gummy Bears)
Description of Ooga Booga Island: To demonstrate Stabilzation Selection we
chose hard covered smarties as the main food. Our Island had big grass plains covered in narrow flowers that grew smarties.
There were three types of birds: we started with 3 medium beaks, 1 large beak, and 1 small beak.

We wanted the middle sized beak birds to survive and have more offspring and all the others to die out!! The big beaked birds survived one generation by squeezing her beak into the flowers but in the end they died out too. The medium beaks survived and multiplied.

Group A(RED) is the original population and Group B (BLUE) is the population after selection.

Stabalizing Selection
ISLAND TWO: BIG BERTHA ISLAND
DIRECTIONAL SELECTION
ISLAND THREE: GUMBO ISLAND
DIVERSIFYING SELECTION
Description of Big Bertha Island:
To demonstrate Directional Selection Selection we chose hard candy, like jelly beans, smarties, and mints. We made trees, flowers, hills, a log, and used tape to attach them to the pizza box. We started with 1 large beak bird, 2 medium beak birds and 1 small beak bird. When the birds fed the large beak birds would get the most food. In the end only the large beak birds survived and had offspring on the island. We predict that if we graphed the birds left on the island the bell curve would move toward the large beak bird.
Description of Gumbo Island: To demonstrate Diversifying Selection we chose gummy bears as the main food for our island. We started with 3 medium beaks, 1 large beak and 1 small beak. We made a cup mountain and designed a spot just for small (pointy) beaks.We also made caves that were really cool and made for large beak birds. We think the medium beaks had the hardest time because there was no spot (habitat) designed for them. In the end the medium beaks died out and the small (pointy) beaks and large beaks lived and became 2 distinct groups.


Directional Selection


Diversifying Selection

OUR DATA

Here is data from all three islandands.

Big Bertha IslandOogabuga IslandGumbo Island