Here is the place for your assignment on the Fish Evolution/Re-evolution article.
You will read the article and then put together a one-page reflection which addresses the following questions:
- How does the article demonstrate what we've learned about evolution?
- What were the changes that forced the fish to evolve the first time?
- What were those adaptations?
- What were the changes that forced the fish to evolve again?
- What were those adaptations?
- What questions do you now have about evolution?
Just in case you need it, here's a link to the article.
I very much look forward to seeing what you've written and what you've learned.
16 comments:
This is only about half a page, but I couldn't really think of anything else to write. I'll change it if need be!
I found the article “Rapid, Dramatic 'Reverse Evolution' Documented In Tiny Fish Species” a really interesting article, it taught about evolution and “reverse” evolution.
This article touched on many subjects that we have learned in science, especially natural selection and how the environment effects how a species evolves. The main subject of this article was the stickleback fish, a fish that evolved with its environment. As the pond that the sticklebacks live in got murkier, the sticklebacks were protected from their predators, the cutthroat trout. They therefore no longer needed their protective plates, and it was soon cut out of their genotype. This shows that as the environment changes, so will the animal, either adding in or taking out useless or useful traits.
Around 1960 a massive clean-up took place. By the year 1968 the pond was crystal clear, allowing the fish’s predators’, the trout, to easily see the fish. Before they were protected by a hazy gunk screen, now they are open to easy attacks. Soon the fish start to regain their plating. The reason for this is again the environment, and natural selection. The fish with plates are safer, and they will be the ones to reproduce and survive.
I don’t really have any questions for the article. It all seemed fairly straight forward to me. The only thing I wonder about is how this would affect other animals, namely humans. The fish evolved very quickly, in exactly forty years, from only six percent being scaled, to eight-four percent being partially or fully plated. That’s a seventy-eight percent difference. If we introduced a drastic and sudden change to our environment, say, global warming, what would happen to us?
JAM SAID
In Lake Washington where the three spine stickleback fish lived. The water once was clean so they had plates for shields to fight off the trout. When pollution kicked in, the water was hard to see through so the stickleback had no need for the protective plates. Over time they started losing the plates because there were no need for them. There was a $140 million cleanup in Lake Washington. After the cleanup you could see 25 feet down. This was bad for the stickleback fish because most, of them lost their protective plates. The ones that still had the protection were the ones that would survive easier and reproduce and live on. This was evolution happening twice in one place.
Reverse Evolution
This article demonstrates what we’ve learned about evolution by emphasizing key points. Well, for one thing we learned that genetic variation causes more evolution. The article talked about this. Genetic variation causes more kinds of organisms in a species, and if they mate they make even more different kinds by smooshing those genes together. This makes evolution easier because out of all those different organisms there have to be some that can adapt well to their environment. These fish, called threespine stickleback fish, have a lot of genetic variation and that’s why they could evolve, or change to suit their environment, faster.
The reason the threespine sticklebacks had to evolve was for a different reason than most. Usually animals’ environments change because humans tamper with them, but this time the humans did a good thing; just not a good thing for the threespine sticklebacks. The fish lived in a lake in Washington state, and the lake was extremely polluted. Then, about forty years ago, the lake was cleaned and suddenly the stickleback fish had nowhere to hide! The cloudy water, which had provided such a nice fog for the fish to hide in, was gone, leaving many feet of unpolluted, clear water. The sticklebacks now had no way to keep from being preyed upon.
Previously only six percent of the species had worn thick, armor like plates to protect itself. Now those fish were the ones who best survived, and because of that they reproduced more, passing on the genes of those plates to their offspring. Now, forty years later, forty-nine percent of the fish are fully plated and thirty-five are partly. Isn’t that amazing?
Now the fish has a coat of thick plates to protect itself from hungry predators. And the occasional pleasure boat.
The reason these events are called reverse evolution is because the fish originally evolved to have no plates. Why would they need them, as long as they can hide in the water? The armor probably slowed them down, but now that they actually needed it they had to change again.
One question I have about this is: if for some reason the air got polluted or something, could humans evolve that quickly? Or would we all die out. I think I partly know the answer to this question; part of the reason the sticklebacks evolved so quickly was because they reproduce more than humans so it was quicker. But it would still be cool if people could do that too.
The article demonstrates what we’ve learned about evolution by elaborating on how reversible evolution is not reversing the threespine stickleback fish, but experimenting on how it lived before they changed into their new environment. The changes that forced the fish to evolve the first time were the humans cleaning up the algae in the lake to make it also for people to ride boats on. Also the water level dropped a little and it helped the fish with their survival from other predators that eat the threespine stickleback fish. Their adaptations were to change to have more plates on them to survive better. The changes that forced the fish to evolve were that the pollution was back again so they had to change their environment again in order to fit in with everything else. Those adaptations were that they gained more plates than they had before.
The article "Rapid, Dramatic reverse evolution" talked about evolution and reverse evolution are impacted on how we act towards the environment like pollution, weather change, global warming etc. I think this article is trying to tell us that if we pollute bad mutations will happen to the animals and us. Just too survive we evolve without warmth, or other things we need to survive like fresh air or fresh water to drink. When we pump sewage into lakes we are killing thousands of fish and the ones who don’t die evolve and get stronger too survive next time something goes wrong.
I thought this was a good article because it talked about new information and also reviews old information.
The article “Rapid Dramatic ‘Reverse Evolution’ Documented in Tiny Fish Species” tells us a lot about evolution and how we affect it. It was also very interesting and told me about something I had no idea could happen.
In class we learned that creatures need to adapt to survive. The fish needed to adapt to the fact that the predator where back. If the fishes had not change then they would have died out which is survival of the fittest, we learned about that in class as well. We also learned about how Darwin said that creature needed to adapt like the finches did with their beaks, the fish did the same.
What triggered the first change was the fact that the lake got polluted so the fish didn’t have to worry that much about being eaten by bigger fish because it was hard for the fish to see in the murky water. Without having to protect themselves the fish lost a strong outer layer. With predators who can’t see that well the fish didn’t need that much armor. Because of the murky pollution the fish lost their armor.
When the lake was cleaned up in the 60s the fish had to readapt. Now their predators could see much better. Because of this the fish had to thicken up again. The clearer the water, the easier the other fish that eat the stickleback can see, the more the stickleback gets eaten, the more they need armor. They had to evolve back into how they used to be before the lake got polluted and they had to evolve in the first place.
In the end the real thing that made them change was us humans messing up their environment by polluting the lake in the first place. Us changing their environment by polluting it, we changed the fish, and by cleaning it up we changed them again. I wonder if the bigger fish that eat them where starving due to not being able to see as well. Did they die? Did they adapt?
hpbeatle13 said:
This article demonstrated how evolution works, the way we’ve learned in class. The fish, when their dark, polluted water became suddenly deep and clear, most of the fish grew plates on their bodies to protect them like armor, doing so, better adapting them to the environment.
The changes that forced the fish to evolve were that humans polluted the river where the fish lived, making the water murky and polluted. The fish used to be able to see in the water, but had lost most of their eyesight and armor that they needed for protection against predators that they then couldn’t see so well in the gloom.
The adaptations would be the fact that some of the fish got a full body of armor, and other only got some armor. These adaptations, or mutations, were most likely caused by some ort of illness, such as cancer.
The second time the fish evolved was when humans cleaned out their river, now that the water was clear and clean, the fish that dwelled there had to develop the same kind of armor as before to help they protected themselves from the predators that could suddenly see them in the newly cleaned water. They also had to get eyesight back again to see these predators.
The second adaptation was that fresh water fish are prone to less plating as opposed to the salt water fish, which tend to have more plating.
I have many questions about evolution. I find it very interesting, and want to learn more about it. I wonder if we cold have evolved from something other than apes, like maybe fish, how ever distantly. It would certainly explain why so may people’s brains seem water logged so often. And I would also like to know if, let’s say, a pregnant woman was put into a totally different environment, like Mars, could the unborn baby evolve to the environment too? And speaking of which, when a baby is born, is it technically evolution when it learns to adapt to the new environment that it is pushed into? And how long does evolution take place? Are we evolving right now? Can evolution be spontaneous? What’s the quickest evolution so far? Can a dog evolve further, and become even smaller, and have its senses even more dulled?
The article “Rapid, Dramatic 'Reverse Evolution' Documented In Tiny Fish Species” demonstrates what we’ve learned about evolution. The article shows that when an environment is changed, the animals in that environment adapt to the change.
The fish in Lake Washington adapted to the changes in their environment, and did it more than once. In 1957, some fish became very bony to keep from being eaten in the murky, dirty, polluted waters of Lake Washington. Today, they are only half bony, due to a cleanup in the lake.
If this “reverse” evolution is possible, I wonder if an animal can become un-extinct.
-->>BY, MACKATTACK!!!! <<--
“Rapid, Dramatic 'Reverse Evolution' Documented In Tiny Fish Species”
This article went over evolution. The article had a lot of things that we went over in class, mostly about natural selection and how nature affects everything around it, and how the species evolve. We also learned that genetic variation causes more evolution. Genetic variation is more organisms in a species, and when mating they make more by combining both genes together. This makes it easier to adapt to their environment. Threespine Stickleback Fish, have lots of genetic variation that’s why they can evolve, or change to suit their environment.
When the Threespine Stickleback’s evolved it wasn’t the same reason for evolving as usual. Usually human’s tamper with animals environments, and they tampered with the Threespine Sticklebacks environment which had a negative impact on the fishes. But what we did didn’t have the right impact on everyone else. The fish lived in a lake in Washington that was extremely polluted, 40 years ago the lake got cleaned, and suddenly the fish had no where to hide. The foggy water was gone and now the Sticklebacks were able to be spotted and preyed upon.
6% of the species used to have thick “armor” to protect itself, those were the fish that survived, and reproduced. When they reproduced they passed down the genes of the plates to their offspring. Now forty-years later 49% of the fish are armored and 35% are partly armored.
The second time that the fish had to be adapted was the fresh water fish, are prone to less plating as opposed to a salt water fish, which tend to have more plating.
A few questions I have are if, we can find a way to reverse extinction. Another question I have is that, if it takes that short a time for a whole fish species to evolve, how long it would take humans if they were in the same problem with pollution in the air. What if humans became so used to pollution in the air and suddenly it was all clean would anything change? And is there anyway to find out, or test it?
By Badgirl
The fish packet is related because it’s about evolution. The fish is changed because of its environment. The first time they changed was because the lake was polluted and had alge growing in it. Those things made the fish have a bonier body so that it would protect them.
They changed back because people spent 142 million dollars. So because it wasn’t polluted any more the fish changed back to the less bony body; like how they were before.
I think it was really cool how it worked. But I don’t think it was evolution backwards, because they weren’t exactly the same. I wonder how long until we change dramatically. I think it would be cool if a group of people would live in trees for generations so that later generations would have tails.
I wonder what we will evolve into next. I think it’s really cool how we all developed from the same organism.
This article demonstrates what we’ve learned in class because it talks about genetic variation. If there is genetic variation there is a better chance of evolution because one type might survive better than another. This article also demonstrates what we’ve learned in class because it talks about reacting to the environment, which sticklebacks did at lightning fast speed when their habitat, the water, was changed.
The change that first forced fish to change was the murky pollution. It made them change from having a lot of bony armor to very little because none of their predators could see them in the murky water. The fish adapted by enjoying their freedom and not worrying about getting eaten. Only six percent were fully plated.
The second time the fish adapted it was because suddenly the lake was being totally cleaned up. Suddenly it’s getting very clear. It’s not so easy to hide from predators in crystal clear water. The fish that had less armor all were killed, because there was a new environment and they weren’t adapted. The fish that had more armor had a reproductive advantage and were able to reproduce, making the species evolve to get stronger and be able to survive with more armor and now forty nine percent are fully plated. Thirty five are partially plated but I think over time those won’t exist anymore because the species is still evolving to having all of them being fully plated. The fish adapted pretty quickly because most evolutions take a longer time, but then again the change in their environment was pretty quick too.
Now I wonder a lot of things about evolution. Can we change an environment to bring a previously extinct species back? For example, let’s say for some crazy reason we want dodo birds back. Can we make it unnecessary for a certain kind of bird to fly and change the environment to get other Dodo like traits? I wonder, after a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, time, could we get something like the dinosaur back? If birds did evolve from dinosaurs, could we turn them back into dinosaurs? What kind of effect would this have on the modern world? Of course it would take like a billion years though. I also wonder if humans could go through reverse evolution if the environment changed to what it was like many years ago.
The article “Rapid, Dramatic ‘Reverse Evolution’ Documented in tiny Fish Species” demonstrates what we’ve learned about evolution in a lot of ways, the most obvious being that when the water was dark and murky, the fish in it did not need a lot of protection on their body seeing as their predators couldn’t see that well in murky water. The Stickleback fish however, faced a rather big surprise when the lake started to clear up with our “help”. Since the water was easier to see in, that meant that the Sticklebacks predators would now be able to see them, and in order to protect themselves, they evolved and grew plates that protected their body.
The changes that forced the fish to evolve the first time was that we (humans) had polluted their home, the lake. The water had become so murky and so unclean, that the Stickleback fish’s predators couldn’t see their prey. As a result. the Stickleback fishes no longer needed their heavy plates and eyesight to help protect themselves. The stickleback fish’s adaptations was, as I had mentioned before, the loss of their armor and loss of most of their eyesight.
This next part is tricky, so I’ll use “Stew the Stickleback fish” to help me. One day Stew was swimming around happily, with his lack of armor and eyesight. Little did he know, that thanks to our help in saving the environment, his home, the “dirty pond” (as he and his friends referred to it by) had gotten really clear and easy to see through, and as a result, this mean bully fish could see him! Then the bully fish ate him. The end. The moral: Adapt or die. Well, what I was trying to get out of that was that the fish once again, were pressured into evolving, because now that their lake was clear and clean, their predators could see them. The adaptations the Stickleback fish went through was getting plates on their body to protect them, and better eyesight.
I suppose the only question I have about evolution now is: Will we humans ever undergo a drastic change, like if there’s a major flooding, will we be able to breath in the water after a while?
This article demonstrated what we have learned about evolution because it teaches about how the fish turned into something else over time and that is basically evolution. Evolution is the change in characteristics or traits f a population or organisms. The fish was forced to change the first time it did change because it needed to get more bones and muscle so that it could fight of the other fish the would try to eat that fish. At first the fish did not have a lot of strong bones or muscles so that type of fish got eaten a lot so it needed to get stronger and thats why it needed to change. Some of the changes that were forced upon the fish to were the water that they had or are living in and what was in it. That changed because of the human beings around the fish and the water and how they treated everything. Having the water change because of the people around it is called genetic variation. That means that the population means that the environment changes. The water would change depending on how many people are around it and what the people do to the water. Changes that caused the fish to evolve again were the males and females interacting with each other. As of right now i do not have any questions on this topic or on this article but if i do think of any i will either post them on the blog and then look for the answer(s) one of the following days or i will ask you in class.
Fish Reflection
The article tells us that fish have adapted to both of their environments. What we have learned in evolution is how things adapt to their environment in order to survive. The article shows how the three-spine-stickleback adapted to their environment that changed twice. This is a perfect example of evolution and what we have learned in class. It shows how the fish evolved to be better fit for its environment so that it would have a better chance for survival.
During the 1960’s, there was a lake with salmon and three-spine-sticklebacks. During that time the lake was getting extremely polluted. You would barley be able to see in the water. The sticklebacks started to lose some of their plats because they didn’t need them. The salmon (the ones who eat the sticklebacks) couldn’t see so well. The sticklebacks did not need the armor since the salmon couldn’t see them. They had adapted. They did not need the protection the armor gave but the protection of the murky darkness of the lake.
Finally the lake was to be cleaned up. $140 million was put into the clean up. In 1968, the clean up was complete and another thing happened with the fish. They started to evolve again. The water started to clear up and it wasn’t so difficult to see anymore. The salmon could see better too. The three spine sticklebacks started to gain their plates of armor back. They needed their armor back because now the darkness wouldn’t help them survive. The plates were the protection is what they needed. Each time the lake and its environment change, so do the fish.
Evolution is a great unit I learned a lot from. I just have a few questions. What is it inside the species that makes it change the way it does? Is it possible for an organism not to evolve? How often does the species evolve? Does weather affect the organism’s adaptation?
This article demonstrates what we’ve learned in class about evolution because is shows that fish can quickly adapt to changes in their environment from murky, dark water to clear water. The fish got plated armor because as the water got clearer they were easier to see they needed more protection that the spikes they had before the clean up.
The change in the waters transparency led to a reverse evolution example because the trout could see better when the water was clearer but as the water got darker they couldn’t see the sticklebacks any more, then as the waters transparency shifted again they could. This caused the sticklebacks to first have armor then loose the armor as it got dark then regain the armor again as the water got clear again.
This article explained how the fish evolved to the environment around them. At first the water they were living in was dark and murky so their bodies didn’t need a lot of protection because the predators couldn’t see them as well. But when the humans decided to clear up the water and make it clean and clear, so the stickleback fish evolved to having a bony armor around them to protect them from the other fish and predators.
The first time they evolved was because of the humans polluting the water they lived in causing it to be so murky and dark that the predators couldn’t see them. This made them loose the protection around their body and most of their eyesight.
The second time they evolved was when we tried to clear up the pond and make it clean causing the fish to evolve back into having the bony armor around them and getting better eyesight so they could be alert and protect themselves from the predators.
I wonder if humans will ever get to evolve into having wings and flying or be able to breath under water from some drastic change.
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