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Evolution Homework
Name: ____________________________________________________
Science ____
A green meadow consists of purple, white, and yellow flowers. Within the meadow, lives a population
of beetles. Half of the beetles are purple and the other half are white. An “adaptation” is a trait that
increases the ability of an organism to survive in its environment and produce offspring. Adaptations
(new beneficial traits) arise from spontaneous mutations. Beetles don’t choose to change their color!
1) Describe a new beetle color mutation that would be “adaptive” to this meadow. Explain your
reasoning.
2) What new beetle color mutation would NOT be adaptive to this meadow?
Cheetahs are able to run faster than 60 miles/hour when chasing prey. Use the
following concepts to explain why modern cheetahs run quickly: Mutation,
Variation, and Natural Selection. Be sure to thoroughly explain each concept.
Please give examples and be very specific in your response.
3) What is a “mutation” and
what can cause one?
4) What is “variation”?
5) How does “Natural
Selection” act on a population
of cheetahs which has a great
deal of variation?
Evolution Homework
6) A population of guppies lives in a small pond along with some predators. Yesterday, 90% of the
guppies were drab brown. The remaining 10% were iridescent yellow. What would you expect to
happen to the population of guppies over time if people over-fish the stream and remove most of the
predators? Explain your answer.
Suppose there are two populations of brown rabbits which belong to the same species. One
population lives in snowy Alaska. The second population lives in the Arizona desert. Both
populations are eaten by predators. Suppose geneticists have determined that a regularlyoccurring random mutation causes white-coated offspring to be born. Graph what would
happen to both populations over time as predation and mutation occur. Let the solid line
represent the brown rabbits. The dotted line represents white rabbits.
7)
8)
Arizona Rabbit Population
Percent of
Population
Percent of
Population
Alaskan Rabbit Population
Years
9) What would happen to the Alaskan Bunnies
over time? Explain your reasoning.
Years
10) What would happen to the Arizona Bunnies
over time? Explain your reasoning.
EXTRA CREDIT: A large percentage of people are carriers for sickle cell disease in West African
countries. Why is this? Write a few haiku poems to explain your answer. (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5
syllables)