English 21003
February 16, 2023
Professor Zayas
The mutations of bunnies
Lab group members:
Cynthia M.
Reem H.
Ihosephin J.
Maksym Tymofiy.
Introduction:
Why do some organisms survive changes in an environment while others don’t? What could be the factors that lead to the survival? Can offspring of the same species adapt differently? Here we come to a significant and essential process in biology; natural selection. It is a process where organisms adapt and change to their environment and they will be more likely to survive and produce more offspring. Natural selection was first introduced by Charles Darwin when he did his green pea experiment. One principle of natural selection is that “an offspring with more favorable characteristics will survive and have more offspring than those individuals with less favorable traits”. In addition, it plays a significant role fr evolution; the process of change that occurs in the heritable trait of organisms over generation purpose of today’s lab experiment is to study the effect of certain factors on the survival of the bunnies. For this lab we will use a virtual lab tool that helps us conduct the experiment and observe the results. If bunnies have have long teeth, then they will be able to survive limited food environment with different types of weather.
Methods & Materials:
In order to perform this experiment, we were given a link where we could take in place the sample. As we clicked on the “Lab” option, we saw grass and a rabbit hopping around. We see that on the right side of the screen, there were 2 tables labled “Add Mutations” and “Environmental Factors”. On the table labled “Add Mutations”, we see that we could choose either “Dominant” or “Recessive” on the features like Fur, Ears, and Teeth. On the second table labled “Environmental Factors”, we could choose between wolves, tough food or limited food. As we observed what we had to do, we played around to see what were the consequences of the actions we choose. Following the bottom graph, as each generations passes by, we could see the growth or decay within our population. Our group decided that we will choose “dominant” for “teeth” as our mutation and “limited food” for our “environmental factor”. We had to “Add a mate” in order for the lab to start. As the generations passed by, we had to keep an eye out for any changes.
Results:
The hypothesis we had at the beginning was that bunnies would take over the world. However, the mutation of the teeth that are larger than a normal bunny and the environmental factor of food limitation didn’t allow the bunnies to own everything, but rather they died when there were a large number of them, perhaps due to lack of food or the generations that were changing. It could also be the environment in which these bunnies grow up because sometimes depending on their fur, they don’t survive in all kinds of environments due to predators.
Discussion:
Based on our hypothesis, we believe that the rabbits will survive with limited food because when having larger teeth, it helps them cut through anything leading to their survival most of the time. The results did not support our hypothesis. On the photos we provided, those with longer teeth didn’t make it compared to the ones with the shorter teeth. As the generations passed on, both populations with the shorter and larger teeth decayed with the limited foods but then a new generation came along and the population increased. No matter which population decreased, the ones with the shorter teeth survived the most. This could be because as the generations passed by, they adapted to the harsher environments and were able to survive. Despite having a limitation of food, they were able to not go extinct.
Conclusion:
Based on the results of our experiment, it is evident that our initial hypothesis that bunnies would take over the world was not supported. The mutation of the bunny teeth gave them a competitive advantage in some ways, but the environmental factor of food limitation prevented them from dominating. Additionally, the environmental conditions may have played a significant role in the survival of bunnies, as some bunnies may not have survived due to lack of food or the changes in generation. It’s also important to consider the role of environmental factors such as predators, as bunnies with certain types of fur may not survive in all types of environments. Overall, this experiment highlights the importance of considering multiple factors when predicting the outcomes of evolutionary changes.
Figures:
These figures show that the mutations with the short teeth and limited food doesn’t make any problem or difference, we mean that the bunnies continue mutating and dying with the same environmental factor and they perfectly adapt to the place.
References:
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/natural-selection/latest/natural-selection_en.html
