Survival of the Fittest

What does it mean to be fit? When you think of fitness you probably
think of running laps on the track, pumping iron, holding warrior pose in
yoga or dunking a basketball. But what does it mean for a mouse to be
fit or a bird? What about a cactus? How can a cactus be fit?!

When we talk about non-human organisms being fit we’re not talking about bulging biceps;
we’re talking about their ability to survive and reproduce. When it comes down to it, the wild
is just one giant game of Survivor. (Of course the consequences are a bit more deadly than
being “voted off”.)

Today you’re going to battle against your classmates for survival in a natural selection
simulation. Interested? Get into a fighting stance to let me know you’re ready.

May the best (wo)man win!!

Round One Round Two

Beak Size:
small medium large
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
Average Calories Per Round: ___ calories
Beak Size:
small medium large
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
Average Calories Per Round: ___ calories
 Round Three Round Four
Beak Size: Beak Size:
small medium large small medium large
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories ___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories ___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories ___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories ___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories ___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories ___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories ___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories ___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories ___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories Total: ___calories
Average Calories Per Round: ___ calories Average Calories Per Round: ___ calories

(General concept for the simulation adapted from a lesson plan by Al Janulaw and Judy Scotchmoor of the UC Museum
of Paleontology. Their version of this lesson plan is posted online at evolution.berkeley.edu)
Round One
On a small continent south of North American and north of South America lives a population of birds of the species
Lichaclipus billus, commonly known as “clipbirds”. Within the population, some of the birds have small beaks, some
have medium beaks, and some have big honkin’ beaks. Well, just like one of you may have a button nose and some
people (but none of you, of course) may have a big, beak-like nose.

The clipbirds feed on maizeberry, limaberry, and mnmberry, all which grow on the continent in equal abundance. Each
maizeberry, being quite tiny, only provides 2 calories. Limaberries provide 5 calories and mnmberries provide 10.

In case you were thinking that these birds lived in harmony, sharing their mnmberries at picnics and hiding their
limaberries beneath the tablecloth when their mothers flapped by, allow me to burst your bubble. The clipbirds are wild
birds. If they find a berry, they eat it and be dashed the starving clipbirdlet the next nest over. They have two goals and
two goals only. The first is to survive. The second is to reproduce.

In today’s class you will become a clipbird, jostling for survival. If you happen to be born with a big honkin’ nose, you’ll
need to gather 80 calories of food to survive and 160 to reproduce. (After all, it takes a lot of energy to cart around that
thing!) If you are born with a medium beak, you’ll need 50 calories to survive and 100 to reproduce. If you have a
teensy-tiny beak, you only need 20 to survive and 40 to reproduce. You will be randomly assigned a beak. (Hey, don’t
complain. Did anyone ask you before they gave you your nose?)

Each round you will have three 30-second trials to use your beak to collect food and place it in your stomach (a cup).
You can only use the clip part of your “beak” to grab food and can only take one piece of food at a time. At the end of
each trial, you will calculate how many calories you gathered. At the end of the round, you will take an average of the
number calories gathered each trial. If you haven’t gathered enough on average to survive you will retire your beak. If
you have gathered enough, you’ll go to the next round. If you’ve doubled the number, you’ll reproduce and pass on
your traits to your offspring. (I’ll choose one of the students who has “died” to give a beak the same size as yours.)
 Round Two

All at once things began to change on the clipbirds’ continent. Quite suddenly
(over a mere few thousand years) a mountain chain rose up within the clipbirds’
territory! The mountain range split the population. Because clipbirds don’t do
well at high elevations, they could not make it over the mountains to get to the
other clipbirds. So, now there were two separate populations of clipbirds living on
two separate sides of the mountain range and not mingling at all. The side closest
to the sea we will call Oceana. The land-locked side we will call Terriana.

Here’s the kicker. The uplift of the mountains changed the climatic conditions too!
So, the clipbirds in Oceana got a lot more rain than the clipbirds in Terriana.
Mnmberries need plenty of water. So, mnmberries were harder to find in
Terriana.
 Round Three

Higher and higher and higher the mountains grew!!

This meant that fewer and fewer and fewer clouds were able to make it over those
cold heights without dropping their moisture as snow on the peaks. Melt water
flowed down into Oceana bringing ever-larger crops of mnmberry. The opposite
was true in Terriana. Each year brought less rain, fewer mnmberries, and more
maizeberries. The maizeberries thrived in the drier setting!
Round Four

There came a day when Terriana was so dry that the clipbirds who lived there
could no longer find mnmberries at all. Cacti and maizeberry bushes dominated
the dry landscape, so they feasted on maizeberries. In Oceana mnmberries were
the only option. Conditions had become so wet that neither maizeberries nor
limaberries would grow.
 Day Two, Round One
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
Day Two, Round Two
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories
___ maizeberry x 2 calories= ___ calories
___ limaberry x 5 calories= ___calories
___ mnmberry x 10 calories= ___calories
Total: ___calories

Average Calories Per Round: ___ calories Average Calories Per Round: ___ calories

Questions (in small groups)

1) Why couldn’t the Terriana clipbirds take advantage of the mnmberries?

2) Can an animal develop an adaptation merely because that adaptation will help it to survive?
(I.e. Will a bird’s beak grow longer merely because it needs a longer beak?) Why or why not?
How did this lab prove that to you?

BONUS!!

Using what you have learned in the past two days, how might diversity within a population
(a.k.a. a group of animals of the same species) help it to survive changing environmental
conditions?
 Day Two,
Round One

Yesterday, when we left the clipbirds, only clipbirds with big beaks had survived in
Oceana where the mnmberries grew and only clipbirds with small beaks were left
in Terriana where maizeberries grew.

Well, since then a few million years have passed, the two populations of clipbirds
have diverged so much that they are no longer able to mate, and the mountains
have worn down to gentler hills. The Terriana clipbirds (Lichaclipus terrianus) have
been able to fly to parts of Oceana to feed. Thus, both maizeberries and
mnmberries are available. Will they return to eating mnmberries?

In this round, each one of you is going to become a Terriana clipbird who has been
able to fly back to Oceana where mnmberries grow. Just like yesterday, you’ll
have 15 seconds to gather as many calories in your stomach as possible.
 Day Two,
Round Two
Wait one cotton-pickin’ second. Did I hear correctly that you all stuck to
maizeberries? So do you mean to tell me that even though mnmberries are worth
5 times as many calories as maizeberries that not even ONE of you ate a
mnmberry. Are you sure that’s what would happen with the clipbirds? Let’s at
least give it one more try…