Unit 9 Reflection

      In this unit we learned about evolution. We learned that taxonomy is the study of naming and classifying organisms. Phylogeny is the evolutionary history and relationships of a species using taxonomy. The order is Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. Archea live near hydrothermal vents, hot springs, digestive tracts of animals, and marshes. Chemoheterotrophs are heterotrophic bacteria that take in organic molecules. Photoautotrophs use light to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbon compounds. Chemoautotrophs use energy directly from chemical reactions involving ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, nitrites, sulfur, or iron.
      Viruses are not cells.They are a very small infectious particle consisting of nucleic acid enclosed in a protein coat and, in some cases, a membranous envelope. Bryophyta are mosses. They are the most common seedless nonvascular plants. Pterophyta are ferns. The vascular system allows them to get off the fround resulting in more photosynthesis. The roots allow absorption of water and nutrients. The leaves allow for more photosynthesis. Gymnosperms are cone bearing plants. Angiosperms are flowering plants. There are two major types of Angiosperms. Monocots and Dicots. Monocots have a single seed leaf. The leaf veins are usually parallel. The flower parts are usually in multiples of three. The bundles of vascular tissue are scattered in the stem. Dicots have two seed leaves. Leaf veins are usually netlike. Flower parts are usually in multiples of four or five. They have bundles of vascular tissue in rings in stem.
     Fungal cell walls are made of chitin. Plant cell walls are made of cellulose. There are sac fungi which form a reproductive sac. Yeasts are single-celled sac fungi. Animals are diverse but share common characteristics. 97% of all animal species are invertebrates. Sponges and cnidarians are the simplest animals.Flatworms, mollusks, and annelids belong to closely related phyla.



This is my presentation on cats:

What on Earth Evolved: Cats presentation



this picture shows the difference between dicots and monocots
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My Inner Fish

In Your Inner Fish, they talked about how fish related to humans. This relates to what we are learning this unit, which is about evolution. The video talked about how fish evolved, and how they have similar traits to humans. We learned about how there was a gene called "Sonic Hedgehog". Sometimes, when the gene is stronger, people grow extra digits, and if the gene is too weak, people end up having less than normal. Some people have six or even four digits. Humans and fish both have gill arches. They look almost identical. Gill arches in humans are jaws and in fish, they are used for gills. This shows how gill arches are analogous structures. In the video, they found a Tiktaalik. It was the first fish to come onto land. They used their neck to watch for predators and hunt smaller prey.



some people have six fingers instead of five
hand



Tiktaalik coming onto land

Purple-striped Jellyfish

The purple striped jellyfish is from the class Scyphozoa. It is from the phylum Cnidaria. It is in the kingdom Animalia. They are known as the "true jellyfish". Scyphozoa display a four type symmetry. They can consist as much as 98% of water. This jellyfish swims by alternating contracting and relaxing a ring of muscle fibers in the mesoglea around the rim of the dome.The purple-striped jellyfish (Chrysaora colorata) is from the order Semaeostomeae. It is from the family Pelagiidae and the genus Chrysoara. The sting of this jellyfish is extremely painful to humans. When the prey touches a marginal tentacle of the purple-striped jellyfish, stingers are immediately discharged to paralyze the prey and the marginal tentacle bends to the nearest oral arm. The oral arm is used to catch motionless prey and to move prey to the gastrovascular cavity. 


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picture credits

Geologic Time Line Reflection

Three major events in Earth's history is when the colonization of plants and animals happened, when the dinosaurs were abundant, and the ice age. The first few periods were a lot longer compared to the rest of the periods combined. We have evolved a lot and done so much on our planet. I don't have any questions that I can think of at the moment. 

Unit 8 Reflection

In this unit we learned about what evolution . Variation exists everywhere and is only a difference in traits within a population. The gene pool is the total of all alleles in a population for a trait. Gene pools change as new allele combinations form when individuals of the population have offspring. The winners pass on their alleles to their offspring. A species is a group of individuals that can reproduce and have fertile offspring. Behavioral isolation is caused by changed in courtship or mating. behaviors or occupying different niches. Embryology is where similar stages of embryo development suggests common ancestry. Hox genes are responsible for turning on other genes during development. Index fossils are species that are understood well and used for comparison. Homologous structures have the same structures but have different functions which shows common ancestry. Analogous structures have the same function but different structures. It's not individuals that evolve, but the species that do. Natural selection can change the distribution of a trait in three ways, directional selection, stabilizing selection, and disruptive selection. Directional selection favor phenotypes at one extreme. Stabilizing selection favors both extreme phenotypes. Disruptive selection favors both extreme phenotypes. Genetic drift is when a random event drastically changes a population and results in change in allele frequency. Adaptive Radiation is when there is rapid speciation from a common ancestor. As demonstrated in the Hunger Games Lab, we simulated a real world population and we saw how the different species "evolved".





Homologous structures:
       



Analogous structures:      

Hunger Games Lab

1. In this lab, we simulated a real world population. There were three different genotypes. There were pinchers, knucklers, and stumpees. The pinchers and the knucklers had an advantage over the stumpees. 
2. The pinchers were the best at catching food because they could pick up the food the easiest with the least effort. 
3. Our population evolved, at first there were nine stumpees, but at the end there were only one or two.
4. How the stumpees had a disadvantage wasn't random. The way that certain people picked up food was random. Some people were better at picking up food that others. There was also that kuncklers seemed to only want to mate with knucklers so that affected the population as well 
5. If there was more food, the results might have been different. The stumpees would have more to gather before the others took them, and more of them might have survived
6. The results would have been different if there wasn't complete dominance.The stumpees would have probably all died out and only the pinchers would have survived. There wouldn't have been any knuckers. 
7. Natural selection is what causes evolution. Only the best traits survive and are passed on.
8. The way certain people picked up food, helped them survive. One person, used their hood to gather food, which made it a lot easier. This might have helped the knuckler population, which was why it remained really high. 

BIG IDEA: Only the best evolves. Natural selection acts on the phenotype. It selects if the phenotype makes it possible to survive, and then it gets passed on.

corks were used as "food"

Bird Beak Lab

We did a Bird Beak lab, where we tested to see which beak could get more offspring. We used tweezers, a binder clip, and scissors to mimic the different beak types. I thought that if one type of beak can pick up more food than the others, then that will overpower the others and only that species will survive. In this lab we asked the question: If natural selection occurs in a population, how do changes in selective pressures affect the evolution of that species. We found that the tweezers, which is the most similar to the woodpecker, could get the most offspring. In the first part, the tweezers got 20 chicks , while the binder clips and scissors only got 16 and 18. This data supports our claim because eventually, the woodpecker would gain more and more offspring, until it overpowers the other birds.

While our hypothesis was supported by our data, we could have had errors due to the speed of a person. One person might be able to pick up more "food" even with a weaker beak. To eliminate these possible errors, I would recommend having the same person test with all the different types of beaks rather than having different people using different beaks. Another thing we could do to improve this experiment is to have more tests. 

The lab was done to demonstrate how natural selection works. From this lab I learned the concept of natural selection. Based on my experience from this lab, I know how evolution can happen from natural selection.