My Evolution Blog- Kaelyn Page

The first male to male competition I wanted to discuss is: Sperm Competition. Sperm competition is the competition process between two or more different males to fertilize the same egg during sexual reproduction.   Dragonflies are a perfect example for an organism that displays this. During this competition, male dragonflies will actual remove the sperm from another male. Or they will even rearrange the other male's sperm in order to improve his own sperm success.  The second male-male competition: Combat The males in a population will act aggressively towards one another and essentially "fight" in the presence of another female. This fighting will then determine who wins the female. This is actually the most common form of intrasexual selection.  Tigers are a really great example of combat.  Both of these strategies are comprised of beating another male out. They take the matter into their own hands. It is not the waiting for chance. They either take the other ...

 Something I found confusing/ need more information on.  I understand that sexual selection and natural selection are two different things. One has to do with survival and the other has to do with reproduction. But, do they eventually bleed into each other? What I mean is, if the male has the right colors and this makes the female want to mate with him over some other male with dull feathers doesn't this eventually give him a better chance at survival? Not only for himself but for his offspring? Because his offspring will most likely also have the kind of feathers females want. And they will continue to mate and so on and so forth.  Something I thought was cool and interesting I thought it was interesting that Darwin was also the one to put sexual selection on the map with his 1859 book. For many of us, he is only known for his natural selection proposition. But, turns out it was him, it was just not as acknowledged because it was a more disputed and controversial topic. ...

 3 Questions Regarding Speciation: 1. One thing from an earlier video was that, a far off ancestor can tell if something is related to them and then will choose not to mate. HOW??? That just seems incredibly hard. 2. I get the technical differences between natural selection and sexual selection. But then again, they kind of blur into each other. What is the determining factor between them? 3. Many times, do species just try to interbreed and then do not have a successful outcome?

Something that makes me feel good are my babies. I have 2 dogs and a cat. Shasta (black and white), Mr. Pibb (tan), and Naughty (cat). These three make my whole life. They are the reason I want to be a vet. Animals are the best things to happen to humans.  They are what I miss most when I am away at school.  Sorry not sorry I bombarded you with photos of them. They are too cute to not brag on. I hope you all find them just as adorable.  (btw: sorry for the weird photo spacing. Blogger does not upload photos well and let us move them around)

 

   Phenotypic Plasticity is the ability of an organism to change their phenotype when  moved to a different environment to better suit itself. This does not change its genome.   "The Genetic Basis of Adaptation following Plastic Changes in Coloration in a Novel Environment", is about a species of lizard that a group studies. Some of the lizards they study live in lava rock with darker color , and others live in sand with lighter color . This is what they found due to phenotypic plasticity. These changes allowed for better camouflage depending on their environment.  This is connected to melanin production regulators, and the  process happens really quickly and it is really spectacular.  For more explanation, the researchers took a few lizards from the lava rock environment and then put them into the sand environment. They found that after only 4 months, the lizard's color had changed. It became lighter to match the sand. This  change of pigme...