HHMI Stickleback Evolution Quiz

Score the fish provided

• Complete

• Reduced

• Absent

Score the fossil of a fish.

• Complete

• Reduced

• Absent

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-1

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

What conclusions can you draw from your graph in Experiment 1?

• The graph indicates that Bear Paw Lake has more fish than Frog Lake.

• The data suggest that fish in Bear Paw Lake are bigger than those in Frog Lake.

• The graph suggests that all fish in Bear Paw Lake lack pelvic spines and all fish in Frog Lake have pelvic spines.

• The data suggest that the fish in Frog Lake vary widely in pelvic structures.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-1

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

In this experiment, you examined only 20 fish from each lake. In 1990, Dr. Michael Bell and colleagues examined 210 fish from Bear Paw Lake and 192 fish from Frog Lake. They found that 100% of sticklebacks in Frog Lake had a complete phenotype. Most sticklebacks from Bear Paw Lake had a reduced phenotype and the rest an absent phenotype. Are your results consistent with Dr. Bell's?

• Yes

• No

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-4

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Based on what you have learned so far about threespine stickleback fish, which of the following statements is most accurate?

• 1. The stickleback population in Bear Paw Lake is more similar to marine and sea-run stickleback populations in terms of pelvic morphology than it is to the Frog Lake stickleback population.

• 1. The stickleback populations in Bear Paw Lake and Frog Lake are both freshwater populations; thus, they are more similar to one another in pelvic morphology than they are to marine and sea-run stickleback populations.

• 1. The stickleback population in Frog Lake is more similar to marine and sea-run stickleback populations in terms of pelvic morphology than it is to the Bear Paw Lake stickleback population.

• 1. There is a lot of variation in pelvic morphology within each population of threespine stickleback fish.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

Bear Paw Lake and Frog Lake were likely populated by the same sea-run population of stickleback at the end of the last ice age. Which of the following statements is the most reasonable explanation for what might have happened to the stickleback in each lake since colonization?

• 1. Over many generations, stickleback in Bear Paw Lake have lost their pelvic spines, while those in Frog Lake have retained full pelvises.

• 1. Over many generations the pelvic structures in Bear Paw Lake stickleback have remained the same, and the stickleback in Frog Lake have gained their pelvic spines.

• 1. Stickleback in Frog Lake will lose their pelvic spines before the next ice age.

• 1. The ancestral marine population of stickleback must have lacked pelvic spines.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS3-1

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

It takes energy and resources for a stickleback to develop spines. Thus, over time pelvic spines would not be retained in stickleback populations unless they provide some kind of selective advantage. Using this knowledge, would you agree with the following statement: "In Bear Paw Lake having pelvic spines does not seem to provide the same selective advantage as it does to stickleback living in the ocean."

• Agree

• Disagree

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS4-2

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

One of the functions of pelvic spines in the ocean is to protect stickleback from larger fish predators. Based on this knowledge, which statement might be a possible explanation for the differences in pelvic spines between Bear Paw Lake and Frog Lake sticklebacks?

• 1. Frog Lake has no native predatory fishes such as trout.

• 1. Frog Lake likely has native predatory fishes, but they do not prey on stickleback fish.

• 1. The food webs that characterize organisms in Bear Paw Lake and Frog Lake are virtually identical.

• 1. Bear Paw Lake has no native predatory fishes.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

Like Bear Paw Lake, nearby Kalmbach Lake is an Alaskan lake that historically had no native predatory fish. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game started introducing rainbow trout into Kalmbach Lake in 1982. Prior to these introductions, pelvic reduction was common in this stickleback population. The rainbow trout is known to prey on stickleback. What would you hypothesize has happened to the stickleback population in the more than 30 generations that have elapsed since the trout was introduced?

• 1. All the stickleback fish in Kalmbach Lake perished.

• 1. The population size of stickleback fish dropped dramatically, leaving only a few survivors, all of which have the absent pelvic phenotype.

• 1. Most stickleback fish in Kalmbach Lake now have pelvic spines.

• 1. Kalmbach Lake has no native predatory fishes.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

NGSS.MS-LS2-4

NGSS.MS-LS3-1

NGSS.MS-LS4-4

Which statement below best represents the relationship between age and position of sediment layers in the Nevada lake quarry?

• 1. The top layer of sediment was the first to be deposited, and therefore, it must be the oldest.

• 1. The oldest layer analyzed from this ancient lake occurs in the middle of the strata as a consequence of uplift due to an earthquake roughly 10 million years ago.

• The lowest layer of sediment is the oldest.

• 1. Of the six layers of fossils analyzed, we only know that the top layer is the youngest because layers below it were deposited randomly without any systematic pattern.

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS1-4