Applications of Evolution to Real Life
Cheetahs are currently listed on the endangered species list,and by some estimates, there are less than 100 animals left in thewild. Perhaps the greatest problem with preserving the cheetahspecies is that these animals are now almost genetically identicalto one another (due to the bottleneck effect).
A) What are the problems associated with having such low geneticdiversity?
B) Because of this problem, many biologists think that cheetahsare doomed to go extinct in the near future. Do you agree, why orwhy not?
C) If you think cheetahs can be saved, what conservation effortswill be necessary to save them?
D) Is there any way to increase genetic diversity in a localcheetah population? (For example, consider just the population ofcaptive cheetahs in North American zoos.) How about in the globalcheetah population?
Phylogenetics
What do phylogenetic trees tell us? What does the field ofphylogenetics set out to learn?
