Who Wants to Live a Million Years: A Natural Selection Simulation Game

1. Match the environments/situations/conditions below with their corresponding adaptations: (a) cold conditions: fur (b) hot conditions: bald (less fur) (c) new large predator on the scene: stripes (d) new tall food source: long necks/long legs

          It took me exactly three rounds before I won the game. This was due to experimenting with the  different phenotypes and learning which ones worked well in different conditions. During my first round, I picked random phenotypes based on my instinct and took it as an experience to learn about the different environmental changes. During the next few rounds, I experimented with organisms with stripes and long legs to see what effect both of those phenotypes had on the environment. I found that long legs helped them reach their food and stripes helped protect their species against predators. Because both of those phenotype worked, I used both those for my phenotype. I then added another organism with fur. This combination of phenotypes seemed to work for me most of the time because it contained many of the components which were needed to survive the environment changes. Evolution in real life is dependent on the type of species there is in an area, how sudden the change may be, how it may be changing, how well the species can adapt and what type of natural resources there are. For the most part, evolution is random and you do not really know how the animals and the environment will change. 

          I do think that the theoretical creatures in the game would be affected by genetic drift. For example, if one creature inherited a bald gene and passed it down to its posterity, that generation would theoretically die if the environment became icy and cold. In the game, there was some aspect of genetic drift. For every creature you picked, it would come with recessive traits, which you could choose from when you picked a new mutation. The alleles/phenotypes that seemed to be dominant  were probably the ones that were physically represented on the creature. During the generations, the creatures that evolved all developed dominant traits. The ones that were recessive were mutations that could be chosen from. 

          I would improve this game to make it more realistic by including more animal species, adding more biomes, and adding more environmental changes like an increase in food - population - overpopulation.