Blog Post Module 3


Before having any biology classes, I would have thought of fitness as working out and staying in shape. If someone had great fitness, that just meant to me that they were in great shape. But now after having many years of biology, I know the second meaning of fitness relating to the evolution/biology aspects. In simple terms, fitness in evolution means reproductive success and how well an organism adapts to its environment. If the species is no longer reproducing, that means they are no longer evolutionary fit. To measure fitness in a natural population, you would measure the organism's ability to create offspring. This determine the amount of genetic material the organism has contributed to the population and next generation. Some organisms are more fit than other depending on the environment and habitat they live in. When I think of fitness, I begin to think about the organisms that have gone extinct. One that comes to mind is the Woolly Mammoth. This organism was once fit for its environment, but then later on could not reproduce, stop breeding, died and no longer exists. This happened because the Woolly Mammoth was no longer fit for the environment. 

If I lived at the time of the Woolly Mammoth, I would take several steps to quantify fitness. Fitness is a relative number, but I think it's still important to get a close/semi-accurate number. I would pay attention and mark down the type of environment the organism is living in, along with any changes I see within my time studying it. I would also keep numbers on how many offspring are produces, but correlate that with the changes in environment. So if I document a change in the environment, I would immediately check to see how that affected the change in offspring and vice versa.   

Comments

  1. megstSeptember 27, 2021 at 8:29 PM

    haha that was funny lol it is so entertaining how many non bio people have no idea what fitness is. i like that you used wooly mammoth as it was a fit animal but it fitness was not able to keep it alive as the climate slowly change causing their existence to go away.

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  2. Madison NSeptember 29, 2021 at 12:23 PM

    Excellent insights about the relativity of fitness, Megan. That's definitely one of the challenges our current climate change situation presents; our climate is changing faster than organisms can adapt! What was once a fitness advantage can quickly become a detriment. Can you think of any modern-day examples of this? What about reproduction? How can you use reproductive output of one organism as a proxy for fitness? Keep thinking about relativity! Great job!

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  3. Emily DavorenOctober 6, 2021 at 1:37 PM

    I thought it was cool how you reflected on extinct species when discussing the idea of fitness. The Wooly Mammoth was unfit for how it's environment changed and therefore died off. Nice work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kate OOctober 6, 2021 at 7:44 PM

    Megan,

    Just like you and from what it seems, many other students, my first instinct when I hear fitness is to think about the gym or working out. I think the biggest and most important aspect of fitness that you mentioned was "reproductive success." It does not matter how well the organism does in its environment (when looking at the bigger picture) if those beneficial alleles are unable to be passed on. Great work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bailee TuckerOctober 19, 2021 at 7:31 PM

    Megan! I love that you used the wooly mammoth as the animal to measure fitness. I think fitness can change depending on the environment the animal is in too!

    ReplyDelete

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