The premise of this project was to explore the impact of humans on the population of animals and the threat of extinction. We chose an animal from the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list which is a list of animals threatened by extinction. We then needed to research aspects of their life and how humans are impacting them.
Content:
The content of this project was done mainly in a presentation and one google doc full of our notes and research questions (As seen below). Additionally there is a Youtube video that can be found at the end of our slides presentation.
Academic Language Used:
Evolution: Evolution is the process in which a species' characteristics and habits change to fit their demanding environments. We used evolution as a basis to see how our species have changed over time and how it led them to where they are going extinct.
Adaptation: An adaptation is a trait or characteristic obtained through evolution that better equips an animal for is environment. For example, the Great hammerhead adapted to have its eyes on the side of its head so it constantly has 180 degrees of vision.
Mutation: Mutations appear in DNA and change the coding which cause variations of traits and characteristics within a species. An example that we can see is as simple as color variation within the same breed of dog or cats.
Gene pool: The gene pool of a species is the all of the genes that a species possesses. An example of this is humans, we all have different genes but we are all human. Collectively these genes create our gene pool.
Artificial selection: Artificial selection is the process in which humans select the traits of an animal that they find to be the most useful or beneficial for them. For us we observed how hunters and poachers liked the oils, skins, and teeth of the beautiful great hammerhead and how they took control of their population by killing them and using the parts of the fish that they liked.
Natural selection: Natural selection is the process where nature or other animals select the traits they find positive and useful. For us we didn't find a clear example in the sharks but we saw in class how peacocks select a mate with colorful feathers in hopes of keeping the trend of colorful birds alive and dominant.
Biodiversity: Biodiversity is the large array of different species of animals that call Earth their home. Biodiversity is what allows fish to be prey for the great hammerheads and allows for them to be prey in certain cases.
Speciation: Speciation is when within one species, a small part of the population evolves so drastically that it can no longer interbreed and it is considered a new species. We saw this with the different kinds of sharks and how the great hammerhead is a descendant of the winghead shark but it evolved to the point where it could no longer interbreed so it was considered a new species. There are, however multiple types of speciation. Sympatric: When a new species is formed just through genetic mutation and selective mating. Allopatric: When the new species is formed due to a geographic difference of the specy. For example if one species lived in the Atlantic Ocean while another lived in the Pacific Ocean, the difference in temperatures and in environment would cause them to evolve very differently.
Extinction: Extinction is the state of a species when their population is completely wiped out. It is extiction that the great hammerheads are facing if nothing is done to preserve their existence. If not, in our life time we can see their population deplete to 0.
Reflection:
I found this project to be very eye opening and very interesting. I feel solid about the work of my group however I feel that our potential product was of way higher quality. Our process was not smooth and we had some good and bad times. One of our tougher times was simply selecting an animal that everyone agreed upon and had research done on it. However once we got passed picking the animal we went to work and set our goals and plan to achieve our goal. This was definitely one of the best moments as we were all focused and determined. As the project stretched on some members struggled to preserve this productivity but in the end it worked out just fine. Personally I feel that my productivity this project was very high and I was content with the work that i did. I felt really connected to the topic because I don't want to see any species go extinct so I really tried my best to convey that through my work. I feel that I needed to work on my leadership role as sometimes I need to roll with the punches and not try and make everything fall into line with the schedule that we had written for ourselves. Overall i was happy with how I did over the course of this project and I'm looking forward to the future projects.