Megan McCoy

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 it...

Microevolution is something that was easier for me to understand and follow compared to the other ideas from Darwin. Microevolution is the evolutionary change within a species over a short amount of time. I think microevolution relates to natural selection in the sense that natural selections drives the changes within the species that shows the differences over the shorter period of time. Microevolution can take place over one generation, where macroevolution takes place over a much longer period of time.  I researched about the various sparrow sizes throughout the United States to see what differences there were and how that related to microevolution. By taking a quick glance at the picture I attached above, it is apparent that sparrows have evolved different characteristics depending on their environment and location. We see that on the west coast, sparrows are a lot smaller in size compared to the ones up north and east. Sparrow populations that are bigger up north are due to na...

When I think of evolution the first thing that comes to mind is adaptation. Growing up and learning about evolution I never fully understood 100% what it was or how it was determined. I always thought that it was very similar to natural selection, but I now know that is not the case. It seems as if natural selection drives the events of evolution. I think the perfect definition of evolution is the changing of genetics to adapt to an environment over time. I think evolution is unclear to many people including myself because it is a very long and invisible process. I am a very visual learner and that is why it is harder to understand. Evolution is also not just one thing, it is an assortment of many different parts that makes it harder to understand. Something that came up in class was evolution being described as survival of the fittest. This to me doesn't necessarily mean the biggest, more muscular, fastest organism will survive. I have learned that survival of the fittest relates ...

 Hello! I'm Megan McCoy and I am a junior at K-State. I am from the Kansas City area, but more specifically I am from Lenexa. I currently am a biology major on the Pre-PA track and am open to wherever PA school takes me. Ultimately I would like to stay in Kansas for school, but if that is not the case I am okay with that too! However, after PA school I would love to leave Kansas and pursue my dreams of living in Colorado (or really anywhere outside of Kansas). Later on in life when I am older and have a family, I can see myself coming back to Kansas but I do want to get out and live somewhere else for awhile. Something I am passionate about, hence going the medical route, is helping other people. Currently I have my CNA and I actually really enjoy it. I love being able to see the positive impact you are making on someone else's life along with improving their quality of life. Something that fascinates me with evolution, but more specifically biology is how intricate and complex...