Preview - Evolution Of Populations To Speciation (Advanced)

The curious case of Rock Pocket Mice


The American Southwest is a fantastic place to study rock pocket mice with different fur coat colors. Ancestral pocket mice had light-colored fur coats that blended in with the rocks and sandy soil that was prevalent in the region. This kept the mice hidden from their predators (mainly owls).  Then, a series of volcanic eruptions spewed a river of black lava more than 40 miles long that wove right through the middle of pocket-mouse territory. Lava flows created huge patches of dark rock among the surrounding light-colored sand.

Today there are now two forms of pocket mice:

  • light-colored mice that live on sandy soil
  • dark-colored mice that live on black lava rock

Researchers noticed that rock pocket mice with a dark fur coat were more common on the dark lava flows, whereas the mice with light colored fur coat were more common on the light-colored sand. How might this have happened? 

In the next few lessons we will investigate this case of pocket mice evolution using computational models.

Let's start by watching a video developed by HHMI Biointeractive about this phenomenon.


Questions

Please answer the questions below.

Mention at least two things that you found interesting in the video.


Mention at least two questions that you would like to investigate about the pocket mice in the desert of New Mexico. 


Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.