Imagine a gene mutation creates a new color of hair. According to Andersen, what will this do?
Genetic drift is a change in the gene pool due to chance. Genetic drift increases as the population decreases. What accounts for this relationship?
Which of the following causes of microevolution is represented by the middle finger?
Compare and contrast microevolution and macroevolution.
Which of the following terms represents the movement of individuals into or out of an area?
Microevolution is changes in the frequency of genes in a gene pool. According to this definition what is the smallest biological unit that can evolve?
Which of the following is the only cause of microevolution that can lead to adaptations?
What is another name for macroevolution?
Additional Resources for you to Explore
In his talk, Paul Andersen explains the five causes of microevolution. Research one example for each cause in the human population.
Use the following population simulator to simulate microevolution:
www.radford.edu/~rsheehy/Gen_flash/popgen/
Run the simulation using the default settings. Note the change in gene frequencies due to chance. Reset the simulation and increase the population size to 200. Run the simulation again and note the change in gene frequencies due to chance. Reset the simulation and increase the population size to 1000. Run the simulation again and note the change in gene frequencies due to chance. How does the size of a population affect the gene frequencies over time?
Use the simulator to study the effects of migration, mutation rate and bottlenecks on gene frequencies over time.
Learn more about evolution from the following resources.
What is microevolution? evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/evoscales_02
PBS – Evolution resources for teachers and students www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/
Biology in Motion Evolution Lab www.biologyinmotion.com/evol/index.html
Examples of Natural Selection – Paul Andersen www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7EhExhXOPQ&feature=plcp
To learn more about Paul Andersen, visit his website.
www.bozemanscience.com
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