6 Bio SB Unit 6 149-168.pdf

Unit 6: TheChanging Nature ofLife

Unit 6: The Changing Nature of Life 151

Vocabulary

Study the vocabulary words and definitions below.

adaptation ....................................... a trait that a species develops overgenerations which helps it to survive

bias ................................................... a preference that can hinder impartialjudgement

Charles Darwin ............................. the biologist who developed andoffered evidence of the theory of naturalselectionhe showed how living thingshad changed over long periods of time

evolution ......................................... changes in living things over time

extinct .............................................. describes a species that no longer hasany living representatives

fittest ............................................... best suited to survive in itsenvironment

fossil ................................................ remains of organisms that lived in thepast

gene ................................................. unit of DNA that determines a specifictrait in the organism; genes come inpairs

mutation ......................................... a change in genes that causes a changein a particular trait

natural selection ............................ the survival of organisms best fit for theenvironment

152 Unit 6: The Changing Nature of Life


Introduction

Some people may look at a forest and see a peaceful, green landscapewhere the birds twitter and the rabbits hop. However, the forest is, in fact,an ever-changing setting where animals and plants must struggle everyday to survive. That is what this unit is about: how living things musteither meet the demands of their environment or die. As Earth haschanged over billions of years, living things have also had to change.

Survival of the Fittest

Have you ever heard the expression, survival of the fittest? What doyou think it means? Does it bring to mind teams of brawny football

players, butting heads and crunching bones,scrambling to make a touchdown, struggling to be

Number One? Which team will triumph? Will itbe the team that can adapt its game strategy to

take advantage of the other teamsweaknesses? Will it be the team thathas developed a startling newoffensive play that no other team isprepared for?

Biological playoffs are going on everyday, constantly, without end. Animalsand plants compete against each

other for food and habitat, or shelter. They struggle against natural forces,such as drought and hurricanes, to survive just one more day. Much like awinning football team, its those organisms who can make adaptationschanges that help them survivewho make it. But these adaptations maybe much different than those youd expect from a football team. Lets takea look at the world of mice.

Adapting to Survive

The oldfield mouse is widespread throughout northern and centralFlorida. It feeds on seeds and berries and makes its home in burrows. Itdigs in sand beaches and sandy fields. In most places, this mouse is thecolor of pale cinnamon. However, in Floridas Gulf Coast sand dunes,biologists discovered that some of these mice are white! How did thiscome about?


Oldfield mice differ in how light or dark their fur is. That is, oldfield miceshow differences in the color of their fur. Biologists suggest that on sanddunes mice with lighter fur have a higher rate of survival. Why? Micewith light-colored fur are better able to blend in with the sugar-white sandand sneak past the foxes and hawks that hunt them. Mice with dark furwould be seen, caught, and eaten. Over time, more individuals withlighter fur have survived and have had more offspring, thereby passingon genes for lighter and lighter fur. Its even possible that some mice havehad genetic mutationschanges in their chromosomesthat allowedthem to have whiter fur.

oldfield mousepale cinnamon color

oldfield mousewhite color

Natural Selection

So, as generations passed, oldfield mice living in Floridas Gulf Coastsand dunes adapted to their surroundings. The higher survival rate ofmice with light fur illustrates the process of natural selection. In a sense,nature selected their traits. Lighter fur made these mice more fitmorecapable of survivalin their environment than the dark fur. In this case,survival of the fittest didnt mean survival of the strongest. It simply meanta change of uniform.

The change was an adaptation. Was it something the mice meant to do?The mice did not control the change. Consider what would havehappened if some of the mice werent able to have white fur. If this hadbeen the case, the mice would not have survived on the white sand.Adaptations are not changes that happen to one organism. Adaptationsare changes that nature causes in a group of organisms. When a species oforganism is able to undergo changes to survive, it is usually fit. Thespecies has adapted.


Natures Heap: The Fossil Record

Whats the flip side of survival of the fittest? What happens to animal andplant species that fail to adapt? Youve probably heard the word extinction.When a species fails to adapt to the problems it faces and all livingexamples of this organism die out, then it is said to be extinct.

When people dig deep into the earth or look at cliff faces where old rivershave cut deep down through stone, they often find traces of animals andplants that went extinct thousands or millions of years ago. These signs ofearlier life forms are called fossils. Fossils usually appear in layers in theearth. The most recent fossils are close to the surface, while older fossils liedeeper. Thus biologists can observe changes in animals and plants overtime by looking at this fossil record.

Florida Fossils

Florida is full of fossils. Since much of Florida was once underwater, youcan often find fossils of ancient sea life, such as sharks teeth and petrifiedsea urchins, simply by looking carefully as you walk down sandy roads.

Fossils of creatures that lived onland are also plentiful inFlorida. Many have beenfound in phosphate pits incentral Florida, but theyre

also common in springs andspring-fed rivers in other parts of

the state. During an Ice Age, millions of years ago, Florida was sort of awarm-weather resort for mammals. These were not the sort of mammalswe know today. Many were huge, bizarre creatures. The saber-toothedtiger lived in Florida at this time. So did the giant sloth, which was 20 feetlong, weighed 12,000 pounds, and could uproot the trees it fed on.Glyptodontsgiant, armadillo-like animals with spikes on their tailscould grow to as much as 12 feet in length. And there were many, manyother types of animals here: horses, camels, rhinoceroses, and mammoths.


Charles Darwin

Most of these animals became extinct.There are no longer any saber-toothedtigers or truck-sized ground slothstrotting around the Sunshine State.Imagine the trouble drivers would haveif glyptodonts were still trying to crossthe highways. Road kill would takeon a whole new meaning. As theenvironment in which the animals livedchanged, new abilities, features, or size becameimportant. The animals that could not change did not survive. In biology,the inability to change with changing surroundings often leads to death.Biologists suggest that the saber-toothed tigers famous teeth were so bigthat the cat finally couldnt compete with other types of big cats for food.Of course, this is just a hypothesis. No one really knows specifically whymany of these ancient animals died out.

Then there are those animals like the early rhinoceros. Though it died outin Florida, it managed to survive in Africa and become the rhino we knowtoday. Of course, many other animals did survive in Florida to becomepresent-day natives: alligators, manatees, bats, and panthers are just a few.These animals were able to change with Floridas changing environmentthrough adaptation.

Though the Pleistocene ice ages ended about twenty-thousand years ago,traces of this era are still evident in Florida. Not only does Florida boast avery rich fossil record, but our state has more different kinds of livingplants and animals than any other state besides California or Texas.

Darwins Theory of Evolution

Fossils fascinated Charles Darwin, a biologist who livedduring the 1800s. Darwin was a great collector. He notonly collected fossils of all kinds, he also collectedsamples of living plants and animals. One of hisgreatest opportunities for collecting came when he

signed on as ships naturalist on the HMS (HMSstands for His/Her Majestys Ship) Beagle. In 1831the ship started a five-year journey. During thistime, Darwin was able to collect and observe manyorganisms. Darwin was struck by the similaritiesand differences of the things in his collections. As he

saber-toothed tiger


Wooly Mammoth

puzzled over how some specimens were very similar but had developeddifferences in small traits, he realized that living things change over time.These changes may take hundreds or thousands or millions of years. Hecalled this process evolution. He wrote a book about it, The Origin ofSpecies, in 1859. There he offered hundreds of pages of evidence from thefossil record and the living world to support his theory of the wayevolution proceeds through natural selection.

These are the basic points Darwin made.

1. Organisms produce more offspring than the environment cansupport.

2. The offspring are different from each otherthere is variation.

3. The offspring struggle to survive: they struggle against each other,against other creatures, and against elements of nature such asweather.

4. Natural selection occurs, and only the offspring who are most fitbest suited to their environmentsurvive.

Genetics and Evolution

When Darwin published The Origin of Species, it wouldstill be six years until Gregor Mendel published hiswork on genetics. While Darwin had some of the story,

he was still missing large portions. Over time, otherscientists have added details to our views.

Genetics are both the cause and result ofevolution. Anytime an organism undergoes a

mutation, evolution may result. A mutation ingenetic material happens when base pairs (Unit 5)become rearranged. This results in the organism

doing one of the following: producing a new proteinor not producing a protein it previously used.

Changes often result in the organisms death. In some cases, the changedoesnt seem to matter. Occasionally, the changethe mutationmakesthe organism more fit.

wooly mammoth


Being fit increases an organisms chances to reproduce. This means thatthe number of offspring with the trait increases. These organisms are stillthe same species, but they are a little different.

If the environment changes, there are a number of organisms with a widevariety of genes. As a result, the likelihood that some will survive is muchhigher. Less fit organisms do not survive. This keeps the number oforganisms at a level the environment can support. It also means that theamount of food and other materials is higher for the more fit organisms.

With the constant changing of conditions, life becomes diverse. Thecompetition for resources (food, water, etc.) can be intense. To be most fit,a species must be very adaptable. With the findings of Darwin andMendel, scientists are seeing how these adaptations are made.

The Controversy over Evolution

Everything in science is based on observation. For example, imagine if ascientist came up with this theory:

Life arose from cotton balls.

Immediately, other scientists would demand evidence. If the givenevidence didnt match other theories or things known, there would beproblems. Scientists around the world would criticize the theory. Theywould judge the cotton-ball theory based on the following:

how it fits with other theories

how well it explains observed data

how broad a variety of observations it explains

how effectively it predicts new findings

Judge the "Cotton-Ball Theory"


Very likely, the cotton-ball theory would not last. At some point,someone might wonder who came up with the cotton ball theory.Imagine if you learned this:

The cotton-ball theory was created by a group of scientiststhat work for a cotton ball company.

Would this explain why they came up with the theory? A preference thathinders or prevents impartial judgement is known as bias. To avoidproblems like the one we described, scientists are supposed to seek outtheir own biases. Once they know what the biases are, they can designtheir research to avoid faulty conclusions. Apparently, the cotton-ballscientists did not do this.

Many people believe that Darwin and other scientists working onevolution have reached faulty conclusions. The conclusions of science,however, are based on observation. They are based on testing, review byother scientists, and reexamination. So far, evolution appears far moresturdy than any cotton-ball theory. Does this mean the controversy willgo away? Probably it will not. In science, however, criticism leads tostronger theories, better understanding, and more knowledge.

Summary

The living world is an ever-changing place where only the fittest survive.Here, fittest describes the species that are best suited to their environment.Mutations can lead to changes in genetic material. The changes are theresult of the rearrangement of chemicals within DNA. These changesaffect an organisms fitness and ability to survive. Those organisms whoare well suited to their environment increase through natural selection. Ina sense, nature selects them for survival because they have useful traits.The fossil record gives many examples of animal and plant species thathave become extinct because they did not develop useful adaptationsquickly enough.

Charles Darwin studied the fossil record and the living world to developthe theory of evolution in the 1850s. The changes that come about in livingthings over time are known as evolution. Evolution, like other theories,receives much criticism. In all research, bias must be examined to insurereliable conclusions.


4x 40x

Careers in Biology

Museum curators take care of museum collections.They decide on a system by which to organize thecollection, catalog each item, store it according to thecategory to which it belongs, and then make sure thateach item remains well preserved. Natural historymuseum collections, such as those at the SmithsonianInstitution, may contain thousands of animals andplants. Curators of natural history collections eitherhave graduate degrees or extensive experience inidentifying and gathering collections.

Museum Curator


Practice

Use the list below to complete the following statements.

adapt extinct mutationadaptations fittest natural selectioncriticism fossil saber-tooth tigerDarwin giant sloth survivalevolution glyptodont variation

1. The term describes living things

that are best suited to their environment.

2. Species that survive are the ones that make

or meet changes.

3. Florida has a rich record.

4. Two examples of land animal fossils found in Florida are the

and the

.

5. Some animals unable to adapt to the changing environment became

.

6. Living things over time to meet

their changing environment.

7. The biologist studied evolution in

the 1800s.


8. The was a giant, armadillo-like

animal with a spiked tail that once lived in Florida.

9. The Origin of Species is a book written in 1859 about

.

10. Nature selects the fittest for

because they have useful traits.

11. Changes may occur in animals due to changes in the sequence of

base pairs in their DNA, and this is known as a

.

12. Oldfield mice show in the color of

their fur.

13. The survival of the light-colored oldfield mice on Floridas Gulf

Coast is an example of the process called

.

14. Evolution is a controversial theory that has survived much

.


Practice

Explain each term using complete sentences.

1. "Survival of the fittest": ______________________________________

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2. Adaptation:_________________________________________________

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3. Evolution: __________________________________________________

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4. Bias: _______________________________________________________

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Lab Activity: Coloration

Through evolution, some organisms have developed changes incolor that allow them to blend in with their natural background.

Those animals that blend in with their natural background are less obvious to predators.

Using different-colored toothpicks as prey, you will act as predatorand see how color plays a part in whether or not prey survive.

100 green toothpicks 100 red toothpicks a grassy area about 10 meters square

Facts:

Investigate:

Materials:

1. Scatter 100 red and 100 green toothpicks in a grassy area about 10meters square. The toothpicks represent insects.

2. Pretend you are a bird. Put one hand behind your back and useyour other hand as a beak to gather food.

3. Pick up as many toothpicks as you can in 30 seconds.

4. Count the toothpicks to see how many green ones and how manyred ones you have collected. Record your findings on the followingchart.


The Coloration GameNumber of

30-Second TrialsRed Toothpicks

CollectedGreen Toothpicks

Collected

1

2

3

4

5. Repeat your 30-second hunting sessions for a total of four trials,and record all results on the chart.

6. Which color toothpicks could you see most easily? _______________

7. In the first trial, how may red toothpicks did you pick up? ________

How many green toothpicks? _________________________________

8. How many trials did it take to pick up 75 red toothpicks? _________

How many trials did it take to pick up 75 green toothpicks?_______

9. Which color of insect (remember, the toothpicks represented insects)has a better chance of survival? Why?

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10. If these were real insects, what do you think would happen to thered insects after a long period of time?

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11. What do you think would happen if you tried the sameinvestigation in a dirt area rather than a grassy area?

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Practice

Use the list below to write the correct term for each definition on the line provided.

adaptation extinct geneDarwin fittest mutationevolution fossils natural selection

_________________________ 1. a change in genes that causes a changein a particular trait

_________________________ 2. describes a species that no longer hasany living representatives

_________________________ 3. a trait that a species develops overgenerations which helps it to survive

_________________________ 4. a unit of DNA that determines aspecific trait in the organism

_________________________ 5. the survival of organisms best fit forthe environment

_________________________ 6. changes in living things over time

_________________________ 7. remains of organisms that lived in thepast

_________________________ 8. best suited to survive in itsenvironment

_________________________ 9. the biologist who developed andoffered evidence of the theory ofnatural selection


Practice

Answer the following using complete sentences.

1. How does genetic variation create new species over time?

___________________________________________________________

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2. How does changing the proteins produced in a cell alter what anorganism does?

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3. In terms of evolution, why do animals that are preyed upon (eaten)likely to have a high number of offspring?

___________________________________________________________

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___________________________________________________________

4. Why is it vital that scientists recognize their own biases and thatthey be open to criticism?

___________________________________________________________

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6 Bio SB Unit 6 149-168.pdf

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