How Want To Live A Million Years?

It took me 6 turn to finally win because I did not know which traits were the best for that environment. It took so long because of changes in the environment. this suggests that most species that lived million of years ago are either extinct or really different.

At first i chose the small legged green one because I did not know what traits were best. When I chose the long legged spiky one it still died. So then I chose the long legged hairless one and it survived. I survived because when the big monster came they were able to run away.

Genetic drift played a big part in this game. All the time I was about to win some predator would come out of nowhere and kill them off. Some of those who survived had different genes that allowed them to thrive.

The dominant alleles were long legs and being hairless. Being hairless helped because the creatures lived in hot environment. Having long legs helped them outrun predators. I can tell because the ones with genes that were not best suited for the environment died.

In cold condition it would really help to have lots of fur, and smaller legs. In hot conditions you would need to be hairless and have long legs. If a new predator came around you would need long legs to run away from the predators. If there is new tall food source you would need to have both long legs and a long neck.

If I could change the game to make it better I would make it look a lot more realistic. I would also add different types of predators and not the same one over and over again. I would also change the environment because it would not stay the same for one million years.It might also be interesting to add some natural disasters.

Who wants to live a million years (Antonio)

              It took me four generations to win because I had no idea which mutation carried certain traits. The game illustrates how hard it is to get a species to live one million years. I believe it would be equally difficult to survive as many natural disasters, predators, and temperatures to survive one million years.
              I chose a short legged hairless organism for all three choices because i had no idea what the difference was (whoops). When I chose a long legged, hairy organism, a short striped organism, and a long legged organism, I survived on the first try. They shortly all had stripes, long necks, and longer legs. I won later using this exact combination because this diverse combination can survive most of the disasters put in this game.
             Genetic drift was a main issue in this game. I was always crossing my fingers to see if my wanted trait would diffuse into the population. Most of the time, it did; if it didn't happen soon enough then the population would die off. Different genes would either decrease in the gene pool, stay the same, or expand. This is due to genetic drift and natural selection.
           I could tell that being tall was dominant to having a small neck and that stripes were more dominant that being hairless. I could tell this because certain genes would die off quicker than others, or wouldn't always expand in the gene pool.
           In cold conditions, it is better to be fat, hairy, and have short limbs like legs or necks. The exact opposite would be good in hot conditions. Long limbs, being thin, and hairless all help in harsh heat. If a predator was nearby, stripes and long legs would contribute the most. The only things that would help being able to eat a taller food source are long legs and a long neck.
           To make the game more realistic, I  would add more possible disasters, foods, and add more possible environments. different types of foods would give more adaptions and make the game harder to beat. The game would be a lot less predictable if there were more disasters or outcomes.

Who wants to Live a Million Years Questions

It took 5 games to finally win the because I wasn’t sure what exactly what was going to happen in the future. This means that real species would have really hard lives and it would be 100 times harder to survive.

I chose red body, tall legs, and no fur and I was able to survive because they allowed me to run fast get fruit on tall trees and stay cool in the heat.

Yes I think this population, when genetic drift occurred,  was greatly affected because when a large amount of my species died I was less likely to survive a disaster. I saw evidence of genetic drift when the group of creatures shrunk and expanded in my screen.

The alleles for fur and long legs were dominant with my creatures while green skin with no fur and short legs were recessive. Evidence of this came to me as I observed the rapid change of a few short hairless creature to a tall hairy creature.

cold conditions= new large predator on the scene

new tall food source=hot conditions

Three improvements I would add to the game is more disasters, different types of predators, and a way you can make your creature a predator.

Who Wants to Live a Million Years? Q&A

1. How many generations did it take for you to finally win a game? Why do you think it took this long? What do you think this means/suggests for most real species on Earth in terms of their species's chances of long-term survival?  

It took me about 5 generations to win the game. I think it took me that long because I was still figuring out the pros and flaws of each character in different situations.  This suggests that most real species on earth can have different chances of long term survival depending on the environment, climate, and situation.

2. Which initial phenotypes/phenotype combinations did you select and why?Which starting/initial combinations seemed to allow you to continue/survive the longest (win the most games)? Why do you think this was so?

The initial phenotypes that I chose most of the time were the characters with some fur, long legs, and stripes characters with some fur had a better chance in hot and cold weather and long legs aloud the characters to be tall and fast and the stripes camouflage them from predators.These were also the initial starting combinations I chose and the one that won the most games.

3. Do you think this population of theoretical creatures would be greatly affected by genetic drift? What evidence of drift did you see as you played the game (simulation)?

I agree that the population of fke creatures would be affected by genetic drift because during the game the animals go through a series of changes in the environment. For instance, as the temperatures dropped the animals quickly had to adapt by growing thick fur and increasing in size.

4. Which alleles/phenotypes seemed to be dominant and which seemed to be recessive? How could you tell?

The most dominant phenotypes that the animals seemed to pass on the most was hard to pin point exactly, but the ones i saw the most were animals with thick fur and longer necks. The recessive phenotypes were usually the stripes compared to all the other genes.

5. Match the environments/situations/conditions below with their corresponding adaptations:

(a) cold conditions; (b) hot conditions; (c) new large predator on the scene; (d) new tall food source

When the environment got cold the animals needed thick fur and larger size. When temperatures get too hot the animals either needed some fur or none at all. If a predator came upon the animals stripes and longer legs were necessary for camouflage and speed. If a new food source is tll the animals had to adapt with longer necks or longer legs to reach the food.

6. How would you improve this simulation to more realistically represent natural selection and biological evolution? Discuss at least three improvements.

If I were to improve this game I would include more natural disasters like floods or droughts to make situations harder for the animals. I would also add more variety in the animal combinations because they were limited in the game. Lastly I would include more environments to allow players to survive in different biomes like jungles, deserts, and even under water.