Question

1. The male pom-pom monkey of the island of Hoi Polloi has evolved to have long bright puffs of turquoise fur all around his neck. The female pom-pom monkey has no pom-poms and, in fact, no turquoise fur at all. Using the pom-pom monkeys as your example, describe how natural selection has affected the male pom-pom monkey population over thousands of generations. Type your answer here: _______

2. A small population of the lucky berry coffee plant exists in a valley on the island of Hoi Polloi. This population has only one color of berries, dark green. But the lucky berry coffee plant also exists in other colors from green to brown to red in other areas of the island. Explain two ways that are described in your lessons for how variation could be introduced into the green berry lucky berry coffee plant population so that it could produce other colors of berries.
Type your answer here: _______

3. A student of Lamarck saw that the wild pigs of the island of Hoi Polloi that had sharpened their tusks on large rocks were more successful at hunting and digging and so sharp tusks would be inherited by their offspring. Why is she incorrect?
Type your answer here: _______

Answer 1

Answer No 1)

Natural selection tends to favour those organisms which are better adapted to live in an environment. In the case of the male pom-pom monkey, the organisms which possesses long bright puffs of turquoise fur were better adapted to live in the environment as they could keep themselves warm through insulation. As these organisms were better adapted, they were favoured by natural selection. Over time, the allelic frequencies changed and these organisms became abundant through the process of evolution.

Answer No 2)

1) We can produce other colour berries in the island of Hoi Polloi by selective breeding. In this type f breeding, we can breed the green berry plants with other coloured berry plants to get the desired results.

2) If other coloured berry plants are placed in Hoi Polloi island, then their population will increase rapidly with time.

Answer No 3)

The student was incorrect because only the genetic traits can be transferred from the parents to the offsprings. Other traits, which are acquired by the organism by living in an environment and not incorporated into the genome cannot be transferred from the parents to the offsprings. Hence, due to this, the pigs who had sharpened their tusks cannot pass these characteristics to their offsprings.