The organism’s genetic makeup

I chose a subject that is nasty in my opinion, but, I am choosing the scarlet king snake as my subject on natural selection. Decades have gone by since the extinction of the coral snake in parts of the southeast. In its place the scarlet king snake has taken over. “Batesian mimicry, in particular, is when a toxic species is mimicked by a more palatable one to deceive predators, conferring some survival advantage.

The most precise mimics are favored by natural selection when their model becomes increasingly rare” CITATION Fan14 l 1033 (Fang, 2014). Though they look very much like their poisonous ancestors, the scarlet king snake is a non-poisonous snake. I guess if you like snakes they are kind of pretty in their bright red, yellow, and black color. I found a few things to be interesting about this snake.

Such as: “This snake is famous for its resemblance to the much feared and deadly coral snake, which inhabits many of the same areas as the scarlet king snake. However, unlike the coral snake the scarlet king snake does not produce venom and is completely harmless to humans. The scarlet king snake likely evolved its resemblance to the coral king snake because doing so conferred a survival advantage from having potential predators avoid rather than attack the snake” CITATION uk161 l 1033 (u. k. , Snake Removal National Service, 2016).

A genotype refers to an organism’s genetic makeup. If you have a genotype it is considered homozygous, if it has two identical alleles it is heterozygous. In order for natural selection to cause evolution, “It must select for or against one or more of the genotypes for a trait.  In the simple case of a trait that is determined by a single gene with two alleles, there are five combinations of genotypes that nature can select:

1.   either homozygote (AA or aa but not both)
2.   both homozygotes (AA and aa)
3.   either homozygote and the heterozygote (AA and Aa or aa and Aa)
4.   the heterozygote (Aa)
5.   all alleles (AA, Aa, and aa)” CITATION uk13 l 1033 (u.k., Natural Selection, 2013)Clearly Darwin understood natural selection was a part of evolution, but he did not know how it fully operated. He was ignorant on genetics and other aspects. That information came long after his time. If he would have had these facts I am sure that he would have figured out all of this on his own.

Artificial selection is the reproduction of individuals in a population where they are wanted or desired. “There can be a down side to artificial selection. Because this process essentially removes variation in a population, selectively bred organisms can be especially susceptible to diseases or changes in the environment that would not be a problem for a natural population”CITATION uk16 t l 1033 (u.k., 2016).

My favorite animal is my dog Buck. Now granted, Buck is a cross breed. His mother is a poodle, and his father is a beagle dog. Buck looks like a beagle with long legs. But, he is adorable. He is probably the smartest and fastest dog I have ever had in my life. But, to have a pure breed of dog, you must mate a male and female of the same breed of dog, with the same colorings and such. They cannot be related. If they are inbreeding, then they most likely will have either mental or physical disabilities.

Sympatric speciation allows for a new species to evolve from an ancestor, while new and old species are still living together in the same region. An example of this would be human beings. Though we have ancestors all around us, there are babies being born every day in the same region, and we have our parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc. all in the same regions that we are living in. We all love being around our family, at least most of them.

“New empirical and theoretical studies have shown that speciation may occur despite the diverging populations having adjacent or overlapping geographic ranges and despite on‐going gene flow. Attention in speciation studies has shifted to the mechanisms responsible for reducing gene flow, regardless of the extent of geographic range overlap”CITATION Vel11 l 1033 (Veltsos & Ritchie, 2011). Another thing that I found interesting in this article was “Speciation is usually the result of complex interactions between different genetic, environmental and geographic processes, and must be understood in terms of this more complicated reality”CITATION Vel11 l 1033 (Veltsos & Ritchie, 2011).

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Fang, J. (2014, December 6). Scarlet Kingsnake Still Mimics Extinct Venemous Species. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from IFL Science!: http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/scarlet-kingsnake-still-mimics-extinct-venomous-species/
u.k. (2013). Natural Selection. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from anthro palomar edu: http://anthro.palomar.edu/synthetic/synth_4.htm
u.k. (2016). LifeScience: Session 5 Artificial Selection at Work. Retrieved December 1, 2016, from Annenberg Learner: https://www.learner.org/courses/essential/life/session5/closer1.html
Veltsos, P., & Ritchie, M. G. (2011, May). Sympatric Speciation. eLS(2). doi:10.1002/9780470015902.a0001749.pub2
Image of finches
Darwin’s finches or Galapagos finches. Darwin, 1845. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N. 2d edition.  HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin’s_finches”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin’s_finches
(Links to an external site.)
Links to an external site.
HYPERLINK “https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin’s_finches#/media/File:Darwin%27s_finches_by_Gould.jpg”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin’s_finches#/media/File:Darwin%27s_finches_by_Gould.jpg
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Links to an external site.