Chapter 3: Natural Selection and Adaptation
Questions 3-1. Consider the first 2 panels (A, B) from figure 1
of Elliot et al. 2013.
a. Which tradeoff is illustrated by this figure, when focusing on the
thick-billed murre?
Answer:
b. What role might this tradeoff have played in the evolution of
flightlessness in penguins?
Answer:
c. Does this data indicate that wings incapable of flight are an
adaptation in penguins? To what behavior are these wings adapted?
Answer:
c. How does the evolution of flightlessness in penguins illustrate the
role of tradeoffs in constraining evolution?
Answer:
Question 3-2. Consider the first copy of an allele for insecticide
resistance that arises by mutation in a population of insects exposed to
an insecticide. Answer each of the following.
a. Is this mutation an adaptation?
Answer:
b. If, after some generations, we find that most of the population is
resistant, is the resistance an adaptation?
Answer:
c. If we discover genetic variation for insecticide resistance in a
population that has had no experience of insecticides, is the variation
an adaptation?
Answer:
d. If an insect population is polymorphic for two alleles, each of which
confers resistance against one of two pesticides that are alternately
applied, is the variation an adaptation? Or is each of the two
