Kettlewell's experiment

Kettlewell's experiment

In Great Britain during the late 1840s through the 1850s, it was noticed that there was a reduced number of light colored European peppered moths (Biston betularia) (light color was the dominant trait) and an increased number of the darker colored moths in the industrial areas. This led British ecologist Bernard Kettlewell to search for an explanation.

The experiment

During the late 1850s, Kettlewell began raising populations of light and dark peppered moths in his laboratory so he could perform his experiment. He marked all the moths with a drop of paint on the wings, so they could be recognized later. Next he released the light and dark moths in two separate wooded areas of England. One of the wooded areas was Birmingham wood near the highly industrial city of Birmingham, which was heavily polluted. The other wooded area was Dorset wood, which was in a rural area that was not polluted. At the end of this, Kettlewell set traps around the woods to catch the moths and see which populations survived in the two different areas. The moths that matched the color of the tree trunks survived. This showed that in the polluted areas where the trees were darker the dark peppered moths survived, and in the Dorset wood where the trees were lighter, the light peppered moths survived.

Conclusion

Kettlewell concluded that the pollution from the factories in Birmingham caused industrial melanism, which darkened the color of the woods. This in turn caused the moths with the recessive traits to have a better chance of survival because of the camouflage. So Kettlewell concluded that natural selection from industrial melanism caused the moths to adapt to their changing environment.

References

Johnson and Raven, George B. and Peter H. "Biology Pinciples and Exploration", Austin: Holt, RineHart and Winston, 1997, 290-291.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Bernard Kettlewell — Henry Bernard Davis Kettlewell (24 February 1907 1979) was a British geneticist, lepidopterist and medical doctor, who carried out important research into the influence of industrial melanism on natural selection in moths, showing why moths are… …   Wikipedia

  • Peppered moth evolution — This article is about the peppered moth s significance in evolutionary biology. For its evolutionary ancestry, see Insect evolution. Biston betularia f. typica, the white bodied peppered moth …   Wikipedia

  • Robot (Doctor Who) — 075 – Robot Doctor Who serial The K1 Robot prepares to take Sarah captive Cast …   Wikipedia

  • Peppered moth — Taxobox name = Peppered moth status = NE status system = IUCN3.1 image caption = Biston betularia betularia Verify source|date=July 2007 morpha typica image width = 240px regnum = Animalia phylum = Arthropoda classis = Insecta ordo = Lepidoptera… …   Wikipedia

  • Electronic music — For electronic musical instruments, see Electronic musical instrument. For other uses, see Electronic music (disambiguation). See also: List of electronic music genres and List of electronic music festivals Electronic music is music that… …   Wikipedia

  • List of geneticists — This is a list of people who have made notable contributions to genetics. The growth and development of genetics represents the work of many people. This list of geneticists is therefore by no means complete. Contributors of great distinction to… …   Wikipedia

  • Sensory substitution — means to transform the characteristics of one sensory modality into stimuli of another sensory modality. It is hoped that sensory substitution systems can help handicapped people by restoring their ability to perceive a certain defective sensory… …   Wikipedia

  • Hammered dulcimer — Infobox instrument name=Hammered Dulcimer names=Dulcimer, Hammer Dulcimer, Four Hammer Dulcimer, it: Salterio image capt=Diatonic hammered dulcimer color=#FFEC8B classification=Percussion instrument (Chordophone), String instrument range= related …   Wikipedia

  • Botulinum toxin — Clinical data Pregnancy cat.  ? Legal status  ? (US) Rout …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”