Imagine a population of birds living on an island. These birds eat a variety of nuts, seeds, and grubs. Within the population, some birds have narrower beaks and others have wider beaks. This is a heritable trait. The narrower-beaked birds are slightly better at picking grubs out of the cracks in rocks and trees The wider-beaked birds are slightly better at cracking open tough nuts and seeds  Imagine that a virus sweeps through the island, killing many of the grubs these birds eat. The grubs go locally extinct on the island (no more exist on the island).  Questions What does one predict will happen to the frequency of narrower beaks in this bird population after 10 generations? Will it increase, decrease, or stay the same?

Human Anatomy & Physiology (11th Edition)
11th Edition
ISBN:9780134580999
Author:Elaine N. Marieb, Katja N. Hoehn
Publisher:Elaine N. Marieb, Katja N. Hoehn
Chapter1: The Human Body: An Orientation
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22.Imagine a population of birds living on an island.

  • These birds eat a variety of nuts, seeds, and grubs.
  • Within the population, some birds have narrower beaks and others have wider beaks. This is a heritable trait.
  • The narrower-beaked birds are slightly better at picking grubs out of the cracks in rocks and trees
  • The wider-beaked birds are slightly better at cracking open tough nuts and seeds 

Imagine that a virus sweeps through the island, killing many of the grubs these birds eat. The grubs go locally extinct on the island (no more exist on the island). 

Questions

  1. What does one predict will happen to the frequency of narrower beaks in this bird population after 10 generations? Will it increase, decrease, or stay the same? 
  2. What does one predict will happen to the frequency of wider beaks in this bird population after 10 generations? Will it increase, decrease, or stay the same? 
  3. Explain why someone made these predictions in #1 and 2. Include reproduction in answer. 
  4. Which key agent of microevolution is acting on the bird population in this scenario, based on the information in the question, and on  answers 1-3? 
  5. Is the agent identified in #4 random? 
  6. How can you tell answer to #5 is correct just based on answers in #1-3?  Tip: It might help to explain what would be different if it was the opposite of your answer to #5. 
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