Do you see what I see?Name______
Lesson 6: Why do guppies have a favorite color?

Guppy Game Student Sheet ANSWERS

Before you begin

  1. What kind of guppy do you have? Put a star above your guppy on the table below.
  2. Within your group, fill out the table for your guppies.

Guppy Information


Fancy Female /
Fancy Male /
Wild Female /
Wild Male
Trait and relative threshold
Relative threshold
Advantage or disadvantage for survival?
How?
Advantage or disadvantage for reproduction?
How?

Habitat Information

Habitat / Mechanism / How will your guppy do in this environment? / Which guppy will do the best in this environment?
Practice Pond / Control
Fish Tank / Easy survival
Amazon River / Difficult survival
Quiet Brook / Difficult reproduction
Murky Pond / Threshold reduced
Clear Stream / Threshold increased

Questions

  1. Describe your general rationale for your predictions. Consider the following questions:
  2. Will one guppy do better or worse than the others?
  3. Will one habitat be better or worse than others?
  4. Will the sex of the guppy matter?
  5. Will the strength of the trait (highness of threshold) matter?

Keeping Score

Use the table below to keep track of your individual scores. Once your group is done with a habitat, put your AVERAGED score on the Group Score Card and give it to the instructor so it can be added to the Pooled Class Data. Record the Pooled Class Data when available.

Individual Scores. Guppy Type: ______

Habitat / Season 1 / Season 2 / Season 3 / Season 4 / AVERAGE
Practice Pond
Fish Tank
Amazon
Quiet Brook
Murky Pond
Clear Stream

Pooled Class Data

Habitat / Fancy Female / Fancy Male / Wild Female / Wild Male / Mechanic
Practice Pond / Control
Fish Tank / Easy survival
Amazon / Difficult survival
Quiet Brook / Difficult reproduction
Murky Pond / Threshold reduced
Clear Stream / Threshold increased

Data Analysis

Create a graph of the pooled class data in the space below.

Questions

  1. Which habitat is the “control?”
  1. Compared to the control, in which habitat(s) did your guppy do better?
    Why? (Hint: think about survival and reproduction)
  1. Compared to the control, in which habitat(s) did your guppy do worse?
    Why? (Hint: think about survival and reproduction)
  1. Compared to the control, which two types of guppies did the best for which habitat?Why? (Hint: think about survival and reproduction)

General analysis

  1. Which two types of guppies tended to do better no matter what habitat they were in?
  1. What do these two types of guppies have in common? (Look at your Guppy Information table on the first page)
  1. What does that tell you about survival and reproduction?
  1. Examining the traits of the guppies that tended to do the best, what is the strongest selective pressure that drives female guppyevolution?
  1. Likewise, what is the strongest selective pressure that drives male guppy evolution?
  1. What counters this selective pressure?

Putting it all together.

Create a scientific explanation for the question: What drives evolution in guppies?