Hunger Games Final Analysis

1. In this lab we simulated generations of a population by having each generation have to get enough food to survive and reproduce.
2. The pincher was the most successful at getting food because it could do it very easily and quickly, leading to survival and reproduction.
3. The population did evolve because the allele frequency changed. The allele frequency was roughly equal in the beginning but by the third generation the A allele only consisted of 3% of the total alleles and the a allele was 97%. This is a drastic change in the allele frequency, and it showed in the phenotypes as most of the populations were pinchers, with few knucklers and no stumpys while the amount of each phenotype was equal in the beginning.
4. The food placement was often random and reproduction usually created a random offspring (given that the traits were present). Sometimes the food was not random and favored some over others. This could affect evolution because it can favor some without the best traits and cause some with the best traits to die to to chance.
5. If the food was smaller it may favor pinchers even more, but if it was large it may favor stumpys instead. If the food source changes or one food source goes down or extinct individuals with certain traits who were not favored before may be favored then.
6. the results may have been different if there was no incomplete dominance. There would be no knucklers, only stumpys and pinchers. At one point in the lab the stumpys went extinct but came back thanks to the knuckers. If they went extinct with no incomplete dominance they wouldn't be able to come back.
7. Evolution is caused by natural selection. Natural selection picks the individuals with the best survival traits to survive and reproduce. By weeding out the bad traits, those soon disappear or become less common while the better traits become more common, changing the population.
8. Individuals often mated with other individuals of the same phenotype, which cause the knucklers and stumpys to stick around. This relates to sexual selection found in nature. To increase chances of survival individuals sometimes cheated to get their food and stole from others. This can also happen in nature.
9. In evolution populations evolve. Natural selection acts on the genotype which affects the phenotype. Natural selection affects what genes are passed from parents to offspring which determines their traits.
10. What are more examples of events or things that could change a population? How have humans affected this process?