Instructor’s Name:

Assignment:

Title: Speciation

Instructions: You will need to write a 1-page lab report using the scientific method to answer the following question:
• What would happen if a species of lizard were suddenly split into 2 groups by a hurricane resulting in the isolation of a small group of individuals on an island far from the mainland?

Part I: Use the animated time progression of speciation to help you write up your lab report.

Part II: Write a 1-page lab report using the following scientific method sections:
• Purpose
o State the purpose of the lab.
• Introduction
o This is an investigation of what is currently known about the question being asked. Use background information from credible references to write a short summary about concepts in the lab. List and cite references in APA style.
• Hypothesis/Predicted Outcome
o A hypothesis is an educated guess. Based on what you have learned and written about in the Introduction, state what you expect to be the results of the lab procedures.
• Methods
o Summarize the procedures that you used in the lab. The Methods section should also state clearly how data (numbers) were collected during the lab; this will be reported in the Results/Outcome section.
• Results/Outcome
o Provide here any results or data that were generated while doing the lab procedure.
• Discussion/Analysis
o In this section, state clearly whether you obtained the expected results, and if the outcome was as expected.
o Note: You can use the lab data to help you discuss the results and what you learned.

Provide references in APA format. This includes a reference list and in-text citations for references used in the Introduction section.

Give your paper a title and number, and identify each section as specified above. Although the hypothesis will be a 1-sentence answer, the other sections will need to be paragraphs to adequately explain your experiment.

When your lab report is complete, post it in Submitted Assignment files.

Part 1:

Species

In biological terms, a species is defined as a group of organisms that are able to interbreed to produce fertile and viable offspring under natural conditions. This description of a species can further be characterized as reproductive isolation, where physical and sometimes behavioral traits of an organism will only allow them to reproduce with an organism that has the same traits. Using the aforementioned definition of a species, different breeds of dogs are able to produce fertile and viable offspring because they are all the same species, but dogs and cats are unable to interbreed because they are two different species.

Population

Now, extend the definition of a species to a group of the same species living in the same geographic area. This would represent a population. What would happen if the species within this population were suddenly split into two groups by an earthquake, creating a physical barrier such as a canyon? If a population is divided indefinitely by a barrier, members of the divided population will not have the opportunity to breed with each other.

Impacts

Over many years, the abiotic (nonliving) and biotic (living) conditions on either side of the physical barrier will vary from one another. As a result, natural selection will cause different selective and adaptive pressures to occur between the two divided populations, and they will evolve differently. Over time, this will result in speciation, which is the creation of two new species. This occurs because of reproductive isolation.