Discussion:
Miscellaneous questions
1. A population of grasshoppers in the Kansas prairie has two color phenotypes, green and brown. Typically, the prairie received adequate water to maintain healthy, green grass. Assume a bird that eats grasshoppers moves into the prairie. How will this affect natural selection of the grasshoppers? How might this change in a drought year?
2. Describe a scenario involving coevolution of a predator and prey. What might you expect when the two species initially co-occur? What might you expect after 20 generations?
3. Describe some characteristics of mutations.
4. Describe how the mitochondrion evolved as an organelle according to the endosymbiont hypothesis.
5. Stephen Jay Gould ("What Is a Species?" Discover, December 1992.) wrote, "We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life's continuity on Earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited for it, but here we are." What did he mean? Explain why you agree or disagree.
6. What is antibiotic resistance and what steps can be taken to prevent this from happening?
7. Describe some of the adaptations plants underwent in the transition from water to land