Anthropology .Go to the Philippines to study primates called tarsiers! The textbook is used in part of this assignment. Download the instructions and answer sheet files below.

Anthropology 130 Research Simulation 1

Tarsier Research Project
 50 points total

Instructions This research simulation will take you through a fictional example of genetic inheritance. The

textbook and lecture slides on heredity, genetics, biological evolution, and population genetics

should have all of the information that you need to successfully complete the assignment. Use

Internet resources as a last resort since that information is less controlled.

Enter your answers into the Research Simulation 1 Answer Sheet Word document and upload it

to Canvas or print out to turn in.

Assignment Start Congratulations! You have been accepted into a prestigious research program. You will be

joining a team of primatologists who have started to conduct research on a population of tarsiers

living on an island in the Philippines. (Tarsiers are

hand-sized primates who share a distant common

ancestor with humans but evolved in their own way to

survive in forests). The researchers believe that tarsier

fur color is strongly influenced by their genes, so they

plan to genetically test tarsiers of different colors to see

what their genotypes are like.

Since you’re the newest member of the research team,

the primatologists have given you the work of

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{ Caption: A tarsier. }

preparing the data that they have collected to present to The National Science Foundation. At

least you get to work in the Philippines!

Part One The international airport is bustling with activity as you wait for your flight to the Philippines.

Announcements in many languages ring out over the speakers. You make a small game of

trying to identify the languages being spoken. Surprisingly, you hear a young voice next to you:

“Hi are you a scientist?”

A child full of curiosity has climbed into the seat next to yours while you were distracted. You

reply to the child that you are indeed a scientist. The child looks up at your with beaming eyes. “I

have a question. In school, we learn about the scientis- scientific method, but I didn’t understand

something. Could you tell me the difference between a hyp- hypo- hypothemesis and a theory?”

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{ Your new workplace (not really). }

1. Explain to the child the difference between a hypothesis and a theory in your own way,

based on the book and lecture. Use at least one sentence. (3 points)

2. The child has you attention for now. Continue by explaining how the process of scientific

research improves our knowledge over time while bad data and theories are discarded. (3

points)

Satisfied, the child climbs off the seat and wanders away. Soon, the gate opens and you board

the plane to your research adventure.

Part Two By the time you are able to join the team in the Philippines, the researchers have already taken

genetic samples of wild tarsiers. Analyzing their DNA, scientists have isolated a few genotypes,

or the genetic makeup, or a few individuals. The genotypes have been given names following

the standard convention of using capital and lowercase letters to represent different alleles in a

gene.

For each of the following four genotypes, indicate in the answer sheet whether it is

heterozygous, homozygous dominant, or homozygous recessive: (1 point each)


3. Hh 
 4. MM 
 5. ff 


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6. Make up your own heterozygous genotype, using a letter of your choice (1 point).

Part Three The scientists noticed that the tarsiers of this particular island came in two varieties of fur color:

brown and silver. These colors are determined by the Fur gene, which has two possible alleles.

Comparing the fur phenotype with the genotype, they found that the uppercase ‘F’ allele codes

for brown fur while the lowercase ‘f’ allele codes for silver fur.

Based on this information, would the fur color of tarsiers with the following genotype be brown or

silver? (1 point each).


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{ Caption: Photoshopped renditions of the silver and brown tarsiers for this assignment. Real tarsiers do

have differences in fur color, though!}

7. Ff 
 8. ff 
 9. FF 


Part Four Continuing their research, the primatologists temporarily capture a few tarsiers to observe over

a few days. Two of the captive tarsiers, one male and one female, are very fond of each other.

Looking at their DNA, scientists found that one has the genotype FF for the fur color gene and

the other tarsier has ff as its genotype. One of your fellow researchers, Jherry, is filling out a

Punnett square to diagram the possible genotypes of any offspring of this tarsier pair. He shows

you his template:

Jherry is eager to demonstrate what he learned when he took ANTH 101 last semester: “You

see, each parent’s genotype is given in the gray squares. With this information, we just move

the alleles for Parent 1 across each row and drop the alleles for Parent 2 down each column to

see how these alleles would combine in their offspring. For this pairing…”

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Parent 2

F F

Parent 1

f

f

Not to be outdone, you jump in to help Jherry figure out his Punnett square.

10. What would be each offspring genotype in the four white blanks in the Punnett square? In

the answer sheet write the genotype derived from the parents in each white square. (2

points)

11. What would be the fur color of all of these offspring, and why? Explain your reasoning with

at least a full sentence. (2 points)

One of the researchers, Lhindsay, comes back excitedly from the forest: “The two parent

tarsiers had a baby!” Being a top tarsier researcher, she already has a sample of the newborn's

DNA to test. The results show that the offspring with the genotype Ff. Lhindsay’s mind reels

from the possibilities of this young tarsier. “What if the Ff baby grows up and mates with another

Ff tarsier?! What types of offspring are possible?” You work to answer Lhindsay’s question by

making another Punnett square. You start with the parents’ separated alleles in the gray

squares and then work to fill in the four white squares with the offspring’s genotypes:

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Parent 2

Parent 1

12. What would be in each of the white squares in the answer sheet showing the possible

genotypes of the grandchildren if the baby Ff tarsier grew up and mated with another Ff

tarsier? (2 points)

13. For each of the genotypes from question #12, what would be the resulting phenotype or

actual fur color? Fill in each the correct phenotype for each white square in the Punnett

Square with either the word ‘brown’ or ‘silver’ based on the genotype from #12. (2 points)

14. Based on your results, which phenotype (brown or silver) would be more likely to appear in

the grandchildren? Explain your reasoning in at least a complete sentence, explaining what

you see in your previous answer. (3 points)

“Thank you!” Lhindsay exclaims. She runs off to tell Jherry and the other researchers the good

news, along with your additional information.

Part Five The researchers are grateful that you have gotten this work done for them so that they can keep

conducting fieldwork in the forest. One day, the researchers find a family of tarsiers with red fur!

A new allele in the fur color gene must have appeared due to a change in the DNA of one of the

tarsiers. This new allele then got passed to the next generation. Lindsay is very excited by this

new discovery: "The red fur allele must have been created the... oh, what is the force of

evolution that is the only source of new alleles?” The answer would be in the book Essentials of

Physical Anthropology by Clark Spencer Larsen, if you haven’t had the lecture about that yet.

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15. Help out Lhindsay: what is the force of

biological evolution that is the only

source of new alleles? (2 points)

Observations of the red fur tarsiers show that

they blend in better with the reddish brown

tree trunks in the environment compared to

both the brown and silver fur tarsiers. This

means that the red fur tarsiers are less likely

to be caught and eaten by the tarsier-eating

hawks that patrol the forest.

16. Given the above pattern over many

generations, would the red fur tarsiers be

more or less common compared to the

brown and silver tarsiers? (2 points)

You start documenting these results for the team, but you need to recall the best vocabulary

term to describe what is going on.

17. The change in fur color trends of the tarsier population, due to each color affecting

reproductive success differently, is an example of which force of evolution? (2 points)

18. You know that there are tarsiers living on the other side of the river where you found the red

fur tarsiers. Due to the rapid current of the river, the tarsiers on one side rarely meet the

tarsiers on the other. Is this an example of high or low gene flow between these two

groups? (2 points)

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{ Caption: The newly discovered red tarsier (still fictional for this assignment!). }

Part Six After filling in the details of your report, you join the research team to eat dinner and discuss the

findings under the big research tent. Lhindsay and Jherry thank you for being so helpful. The

primary investigator of this team, the P.I., strolls up to you and hands you a celebratory lumpia

(spring roll).

“Excellent work on the tarsier fur colors. The red fur tarsiers will really add to what we know

about this branch of primates, and all primates in general. We still don’t know if the new red fur

allele is dominant or recessive. If it is recessive, like the f allele, then only F will be dominant for

this gene, overriding the other alleles. If it turns out that the red fur allele is as dominant as the

brown fur allele… what is the word for that situation?”

19. Impress the P.I.: what is the term for a gene where multiple alleles for a gene are dominant?

(2 points)

20. If the red fur allele is dominant, what could a tarsier look like if it had both the red allele and

the brown allele? (2 points)

“There is a chance that the fur gene affects more than just the fur color: eye color may be

affected as well! In that case, this one gene affects multiple traits.”

21. What is the term for a gene that affects more than one trait? (2 points)

“There are so many complications to genetics beyond what we just went over. I know that you

have read the book Essentials of Physical Anthropology by Clark Spencer Larsen. He’s a great

professor! Do you recall what the book said about regulatory and structural genes?”

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22. What is the definition of a regulatory gene? Use a complete sentence and rephrase the

definition from what the book says. (2 points)

23. What is the definition of a structural gene? Use a complete sentence and rephrase the

definition from what the book says. (2 points)

24. What is the name for the type of gene found in many different animals that controls the

development of body parts? (2 points)

Your Primary Investigator nods in contentment. “It’s been great chatting with you. I’m very

excited about analyzing these data and adding on to our scientific knowledge. To be honest, I’m

a little competitive. Another research team may discover the same things about tarsiers and

publish their discovery first. It’s like when Charles Darwin was almost too late in publishing his

work on natural selection because another researcher was following the same clues to the

same theory. Now, Darwin is the famous name for natural selection, while the other guy is less

well known. In fact, what was his name? I’m sure Larsen mentions him in your old physical

anthropology textbook.”

25. Who was the researcher who almost announced his discovery of natural selection before

Charles Darwin did it? (2 points)

Part Seven The next day, you stop by the nearby town of Corella to visit an Internet café and see what is

going on with social media. You received some messages from friends asking about what you

did recently in your research.

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26. Write a short status message of around 150 words describing what you did and learned

while studying tarsiers as if you were really there. College-level writing is not required! Have

fun with it. (4 points)

Conclusion The eventful field season concluded, you return home from the Philippines to turn in your

answer sheet. The researchers continue their work on finding more about tarsiers. They can

now test the new hypothesis that the red fur will become more common in the future. By careful

observation of the environment, scientists can make and test hypotheses about how the tarsier

genotype and phenotype are interrelated. This adds a little bit of new information to the existing

scientific knowledge. We will learn more about tarsiers later in the course!

Be sure to have answered every question in the answer sheet before submitting it on Canvas or

turning it in on paper.

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Caption: The public market in Corella (it’s a real town!).