Evolution with Delaney!

https://food.ndtv.com/health/dolphin-proteins-may-prove-to-be-beneficial-for-human-health-1664440 https://sonoraninstitute.org/events/dragonfly/ This week we discussed male-male competition. There are various types of male-male competition but I have chosen to discuss sperm competition and infanticide. Dragonflies display sperm competition because the males actually remove sperm from another male before they mate. An alternative to removal is to rearrange the other males sperm so that there is a better chance of the mating males sperm success. Dolphins on the other hand occasionally engage in infanticide. The adult male dolphins drown the young by pushing them underwater so they cannot get air. This allows for the mothers to be available for breeding once more. Both forms of these male-male competition aim to give a male a better chance at producing offspring but does not have species propagation in mind. The main difference between the two types of competition discussed is that in spe

A peacock in Ranthambore, India. Travelographer 1 | 500px Prime | Getty Images In the Common Descent podcast they discussed various aspects of sexual selection . At the beginning of the discussion they compared sexual selection and natural selection. One trait that they used to describe sexual selection is that it only cares if you survive long enough to have babies. I was a bit confused about this statement because I was under the impression that is what all types of selection cared about most. They didn't go into a lot of detail on that statement but I would be interested to hear a further explanation. Later on in the podcast they discussed sexual conflict . This was described as opposing selective pressures for different sexes of the same species. The different sexes essentially have different goals when it comes to reproduction. I thought this was very interesting because oftentimes when I think about species propagation I do so with the mindset that every individual just want

https://ib.bioninja.com.au/standard-level/topic-5-evolution-and-biodi/51-evidence-for-evolution/speciation.html Today we discussed speciation and the complexities of determining what is a species and what is not! A few questions I was left with are: 1) Where/when do subspecies come into play? 2) When the news says a new species has been discovered what parameters are being used? 3) At what point do we conclude that there is sexual dimorphism? Do all of the males need to have a certain characteristic (for example: the fancy trait in the Cornell Ornithology Lab video) or can some males exist without the characteristic?

 Something that makes me happy is my dogs! I realize there's probably a lot of people discussing their dogs in this weeks blogpost but they truly are a gift from God! They always bring comedic relief, will cuddle with you, and are just fun to be around. This is my dog Charlie. When we adopted her from the animal rescue, we were initially told that she was a terrier/poodle mix. We already had a terrier/Poodle mix and it was very obvious Charlie was not similar to her so we had her DNA tested! Turns out she is a Golden Retriever, Poodle, Miniature Pinscher, Chihuahua mix! She is almost three years old and is the best cuddler ever. This is Kia! She is a Jack Russell terrier/Poodle mix! She turned 14 in August and is the sweetest old lady. She was super rambunctious when she was younger and loved to dig her way out of the backyard. We thought her gallivanting days were over but two weeks ago the neighbor found her in their backyard. I guess some things never change.  Here is Kia and Ch

  In these story book pages there are blue mice and grey mice. The grey mice blend in very well with the street and sidewalk while the blue mice stick out. As a result of being so visible, a bird preys on a blue mouse. The loss of the blue mouse changes the allele frequency in the population of mice. With less blue mice available to reproduce, the subsequent generation has a higher frequency of grey mice and their alleles than the original population. This is   NOT genetic drift. The changes in allele frequency in this case were because of decreased fitness and were not random. In these story book pages there is a population of grey and blue mice. Some of the grey mice are in the street when a car comes and runs them over. This reduced the population and changed the allele frequencies. The frequency of the allele leading to a blue coat is now much higher than it was. As a result, subsequent populations have a higher percentage of blue mice than the original population did. This IS due

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fpii%2FS0960982218309801&psig=AOvVaw32wrIV4W1HqwrnvInzGhsq&ust=1603210946016000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CA0QjhxqFwoTCNDt_KeIwewCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAI Phenotypic plasticity is the ability of an organism to change its phenotype to fit its environment for better fitness. The lectures discussed phenotypic plasticity in lava lizards. Researchers looked at three different populations: Pisgah lava flow lizards, off-lava lizards, and Amboy lava flow lizards. They found that the lizards exhibited phenotypic plasticity and were able to change colors to better match their environments. However, they found that Pisgah lava lizards were able to maintain a darker color than other lizards. Through exome sequencing the researchers were able to determine that there is gene variation in the  PREP and PRKAR1A genes in the Pisgah lava flow lizards. These variations were not found in either the