Anthro Assignment #1

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University of California, Los Angeles *

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Anthropology

Date

Apr 3, 2024

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Uploaded by MajorLapwingMaster1210

Q1: How does natural selection produce complex, functionally integrated adaptations like the human eye? Natural selection selection produces complex adaptations by cumulative selection. These adaptations are evolution tinkers that become intermediate forms of evolution, they are small changes that over time accumulate and become bigger changes. Q2: After a drought, a scientist collects dead birds and finds that most of the individuals that did not survive to adulthood have either small or large beaks. Given this pattern, how do you expect selection is likely acting on the population? Selection is acting in this population by way of variation. Birds with small beaks can only eat soft seeds which were eliminated by the drought, and birds with large beaks can only eat the hard seeds which are most present during the drought. Now that the drought is over, neither birds with large beaks nor small beaks are favored because neither soft or hard seeds are the most prevalent, meaning that there will be greater competition within the birds with similar beaks. The birds with medium beaks will be benefited the most because they can eat both types of seeds so they have the least amount of struggle regarding finding food. Q3: Why did the Grants’ study of medium ground finches find that new species normally take thousands to millions of years to arise, but some domestic dog breeds developed over the course of hundreds of years – why the difference in time scales? The reason why the dogs developed so much faster than the finches can be attributed to the existence of strong environmental pressures on the dogs as opposed to the finches. We could assume that the domestication of dogs leads to an increase in exterior environmental pressures for evolution leading dogs to develop at a much quicker pace.

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Anthro Assignment #1

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