Survivability of Oryctolagus cuniculus Under Different Circumstances

(Selective Factors)
By Jay Jang & Jinho Yang
sijang17@student.kis.or.kr
jhyang17@student.kis.or.kr
of Ms. Novaks A Block Class
Published 14 April 2014
(http://www.kis.or.kr)

Abstract
The purpose of the following experiments were to dig more into the link between natural
selection, adaptation & mutations, and finally to evolution. The Phet Simulation Program
created by the University of Colorado was used, where Oryctolagus cuniculus were
experimented under different environments, mutations, and selective factors. Four
different results, corresponding to four different results, came out. The results suggested
that the Oryctolagus cuniculus that either camouflaged into the environment, or had
superior body structure to consume food lived longer and spread genes to future
generations. The Oryctolagus cuniculus that could not fulfill the requirements were gone
into history. The conducted experiment dealt with Oryctolagus cuniculus, but all
organisms on this planet cannot escape the natural order of natural selection and
evolution.

Key Terms
Mutation
Selective Factor
Oryctolagus cuniculus
Adaptation
Natural Selection

Objective
The objective of this experiment is to research about the cause-and-effect relationships
between the phenotype frequencies and the rate of population of the Oryctolagus
cuniculus under varying circumstances of environments and selective factors (predators
and preys). Natural selection will choose the type of Oryctolagus cuniculus which has
shown a stronger adaptation by mutations over generations to the changes of the
surrounding environment, to prosper. Others will be eliminated, and thus evolution
continues. This experiment does not only apply to the Oryctolagus cuniculus but takes
example in all species, including the Homo sapiens. To understand more fully about the
concept of evolution and natural selection in this world, this simulation program and
experiment is one of the best examples to use.

Background Information
What do Oryctolagus cuniculus eat? - Oryctolagus cuniculus eat hard fibrous food.
What kind of home do Oryctolagus cuniculus create? - Oryctolagus cuniculus live in
underground holes.
How long are Oryctolagus cuniculus in gestation (rate of reproduction)? - Fast,
gestations are normally about a month long.
How do Oryctolagus cuniculus defend against predators such as wolves? - Oryctolagus
cuniculus remain together in pacts and listen for nearby predators with their wide ears.
What is the scientific family name for Oryctolagus cuniculus? - Lepus Curpaeumus
Why were Oryctolagus cuniculus chosen as a model animal for this simulation? Oryctolagus cuniculus reproduce fast, which ensures a wide range of generations
during a short duration of time compared to other animals such as humans that take 10
months in gestation.

How common are genetic mutations? - How does this relate to polymorphism? - Genetic
mutations are not common; mutations occur over long periods of time. Polymorphism is
likely to be caused by genetic mutations.
What is adaptation? - Adaptation is a change by which an organism or species become
well-suited to its environment.
What variables can be influenced in this simulation? - The environment, the different
mutations, and the introduction of predators or food (selective factors) for the
Oryctolagus cuniculus can be influenced in this simulation.

Hypotheses
Experiment 1. Oryctolagus cuniculus with long teeth have more survivability under food,
because Oryctolagus cuniculus long teeth are more efficient in getting food.
Experiment 2. Oryctolagus cuniculus with long tail have less survivability under wolves,
because Oryctolagus cuniculus long tail helps the wolves to catch them.
Experiment 3. Brown Oryctolagus cuniculus will be more likely to survive under wolves
within the equator environment, because their fur blend into the environment which is of
similar color.
Experiment 4. Brown Oryctolagus cuniculus will be less likely to survive under wolves
within the arctic environment, because their fur do not blend into the environment which
is of similar color.

Materials
- PHET Interactive Simulation developed by University of Colorado
- PC/Mac/Linux computer with access to Internet
- SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

Windows
Microsoft Windows
XP/Vista/7
Sun Java 1.5.0_19 or later
Macintosh
OS 10.5 or later
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later
Linux
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later

Methods
Follow the following instructions to perform the experiment(s).
Download the simulation
Set the environment that the experiment will be held under. For each experiment, start
be adding a friend and a mutation. Run for 4 generations. This will be the control.
Experiment 1- equator/arctic (environment), long teeth(mutation)
Experiment 2 - equator/arctic(environment), long tail(mutation)
Experiment 3 - equator(environment), brown fur(mutation)
Experiment 4 - arctic(environment), brown fur(mutation)
Repeat the experiment. At the F3 generation, add the selective factor chosen in the
hypothesis. Then run for another 4 or so generations.
Experiment 1 - food (selective factor)
Experiment 2 - wolves (selective factor)
Experiment 3 - wolves (selective factor)
Experiment 4 - wolves (selective factor)

Take screenshots for evidence and data. The chart can be zoomed in and out for
accurate reads.
Repeat this for all of your experiments (hypothesis).

Data Collection
Effects of Mutations & Environments on Natural Selection
1. Oryctolagus
2. Oryctolagus
3. Brown
cuniculus with long cuniculus with long Oryctolagus
teeth have more tail have less
cuniculus will be
survivability under survivability under more likely to
food, because
wolves, because survive under
Oryctolagus
Experiment # Oryctolagus
wolves within the
and
cuniculus long
cuniculus long tail equator
Hypothesis
teeth are more
helps the wolves environment ,
efficient in getting to catch them.
because their fur
food.
blend into the
environment which
is of similar color.
Phenotype

Environment

Selective Factor

CONTROL
Group
Initial
Population at
F3

4. Brown
Oryctolagus
cuniculus will be less
likely to survive
under wolves within
the arctic
environment,
because their fur do
not blend into the
environment which
is of similar color.

long teeth

long tail

brown fur

brown fur

both

both

equator

arctic

food

wolves

wolves

wolves

Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Teeth: 37
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Teeth: 17
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Tail: 37
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Tail: 17
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 37
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 17
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 40
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 14
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

CONTROL
Group
Final
Population

Experiment
Group
Initial
Population at
F3

Experiment
Group
Final
Population

Total: 1450
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Teeth: 990
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Teeth: 460
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Total: 1450
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Tail: 990
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Tail: 460
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Oryctolagus
cuniculus have
taken over the
world
Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Teeth: 39
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Teeth: 15
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Total: 139
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Teeth: 17
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Teeth: 122
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Oryctolagus
cuniculus have
taken over the
world
Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Tail: 36
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Tail: 18
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Total: 0
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Short Tail: 0
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Long Tail: 0
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Total: 1450
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 1000
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 450
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Total: 1420
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 1000
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 420
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Oryctolagus
cuniculus have
taken over the
world

Oryctolagus
cuniculus have
taken over the
world

Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 37
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 17
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Total: 108
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 0
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 108
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Total: 54
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 39
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 15
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Total: 180
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
White: 180
Oryctolagus
cuniculus
Brown: 0
Oryctolagus
cuniculus

Analysis
Experiment 1 - Control Group Final Population

Experiment 1 - Experiment Group Final Population

The first graph, which is the control group final population, shows the population of short
teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus, and long teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus. As you can see, the
short teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus are dominating the long teeth with population.
However, in the second chart, which shows the population of short teeth Oryctolagus
cuniculus and long teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus with a selective factor of food. As you
can see, the chart has a trend. The total population of Oryctolagus cuniculus greatly
increase, then suddenly decrease, but increases again. The reason for the increase of
the population of because of the reproduction of Oryctolagus cuniculus. The decrease
however, we think the reason is because the great increase of the population caused
the lack of food, which kills some population. This repeats, which makes the trend
shown in the chart.

Now lets see how the selective factor effects the short teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus and
long teeth. In the control group, the short teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus have higher
population than the long teeth. After the selective factor was added, the population of
short teeth slowly decreases, but the population of the long teeth slowly increases. In
the F7 generation, the population of the long teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus dominate the
short teeth. This is because short teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus can not consume enough
food, but the long teeth Oryctolagus cuniculus have strong teeth that supports to
consume food.
Experiment 2- Control Group Final Population

Experiment 2 - Experiment Group Final Population

The graphs above show the population of Oryctolagus cuniculus with short tail, and long
tail. As you can see, the selective factor, which is wolves, greatly decreases the
population of the Oryctolagus cuniculus. If our hypothesis was right, there should have
been a clear data shown that the long tailed Oryctolagus cuniculus have less
survivability. However, all the Oryctolagus cuniculus eventually died in a short period

without giving any evidence. In the control group, short tailed Oryctolagus cuniculus are
more populated than the long tailed. Even in the experiment group, the short tailed
Oryctolagus cuniculus have higher population than the long tailed. Weather a
Oryctolagus cuniculus has a long tail, nor a short tail, neither of them affect the
survivability of the Oryctolagus cuniculus.
Experiment 3 - Control Group Final Population

Experiment 3 - Experiment Group Final Population

The graph showing the population of control group, without any selective factors added,
exhibits the rapid inclination of the population of both white fur Oryctolagus cuniculus
and brown fur Oryctolagus cuniculus in the equator environment. Since brown fur is the
recessive trait, there are less brown fur Oryctolagus cuniculus than the dominant white
fur Oryctolagus cuniculus. Without any external threats, the Oryctolagus cuniculus

continued their reproduction, and soon reached a surplus of over 4000 in just seven
generations. However, in the experiment group where a selective factor of wolves were
brought in, the Oryctolagus cuniculus population showed a consistent pattern of steep
incline and decline. When wolves preyed on the Oryctolagus cuniculus, population
levels would decrease heavily. The white fur Oryctolagus cuniculus that were leading
without predators at first, were soon extinct. Interestingly enough, random white fur
Oryctolagus cuniculus popped up. This may have been caused by the addition of white
fur Oryctolagus cuniculus from other surrounding regions. Brown fur Oryctolagus
cuniculus steadily increased their population even with the continuous purges. After
seven generations, brown fur Oryctolagus cuniculus reached a population of about 110.
This is a vast difference compared to the Oryctolagus cuniculus unleashed into the wild
without threats (control group). Also, another detail of the experiment is how as
Oryctolagus cuniculus populations rose, the amount of Oryctolagus cuniculus killed
during the purges by the wolves increased. This may indirectly reveal the increase in
the population of the wolves too.
Experiment 4 - Control Group Final Population

Experiment 4 - Experiment Group Final Population

Experiment 4 is the direct opposite of experiment 3, where instead of the brown fur
Oryctolagus cuniculus, the white fur Oryctolagus cuniculus were far more successful in
adapting to the white arctic environment covered in snow and ice. The way how the
number of Oryctolagus cuniculus killed during each purge increased, and the extinction
of the less adapted Oryctolagus cuniculus was the same, but there was one small
difference. The brown fur Oryctolagus cuniculus were fully extinct, unlike the white fur
Oryctolagus cuniculus in experiment 3 in the equator environment that kept randomly
popping up in each generation before purges. Also, more white fur Oryctolagus
cuniculus survived, with the exact numbers being 180 compared to the brown fur
Oryctolagus cuniculus in the experiment above that ended up as 110 in the last
generation.

Conclusion
For experiment 1, the hypothesis was accurate. Under the proper food, the Oryctolagus
cuniculus with long teeth dominated in population in comparison to the Oryctolagus
cuniculus with short teeth In the next experiment, number 2, the hypothesis was
inaccurate. All the Oryctolagus cuniculus died off, which made checking the relationship
between the length of the tail to the survivability of a Oryctolagus cuniculus impossible.
For experiment 3, the population of the white fur Oryctolagus cuniculus decreased
heavily, and soon were almost non-existent while the population of brown fur
Oryctolagus cuniculus increased on and on. Wolves targeted white fur Oryctolagus

cuniculus more than the brown Oryctolagus cuniculus because the white fur
Oryctolagus cuniculus had difficulties camouflaging into the brown equator environment.
However, experiment 4 was the direct opposite of experiment 3. The environment was
switched to the arctic. The white Oryctolagus cuniculus prevailed as they successfully
camouflaged into the white arctic environment; unfortunately, the brown fur Oryctolagus
cuniculus did not.
The information we gathered is useful to the world community in a way because the set
of experiments are a straightforward interactive activity to understand natural selection
that happens over several generations. In the past, Mendel had to wait for months and
years for observe the peas and how their traits diversified. Today, in under an hour,
simulations can be used by anyone with only a small set of instructions to perform
exactly what scientists do around in the world today at their homes. This is innovation.
Another fact learnable from the experiment include how the control group part of the
experiments can be related to the Homo sapiens, or humans, today. When the
Oryctolagus cuniculus population was left without predators, population levels
skyrocketed. In the past, human population was contained by continuous famines and
natural disasters. However, after scientific evolutions and achieving to climb to the top of
the food chain, a golden age has come, human population is booming out of hand and
Earth is suffering from overcrowding and its aftereffects such as global warming. The
initial research can be extended by a website or an organization that gathers different
hypothesis and evidence of them to understand more about the specific selective
factors or environments that affect specific mutations of Oryctolagus cuniculus. People
should able to try out the simulation of this PHET Natural Selection to find out variety of
hypothesis that can be supported with evidence. In order to make this public, the
simulation would need additional mutations, selective factors, and environment. Human
effect to the survivability of the Oryctolagus cuniculus can also be added if this
extension gets really far on.

Sources of Error
All simulation programs are limited in comparison to reality. Some factors, major or
minor, will always be left out. In this Phet Natural Selection simulation program, there
are several flaws. First of all, the only animals exist are the Oryctolagus cuniculus
(Oryctolagus cuniculus) and the Canis lupus (wolf). This causes a confusion in the food
chain and eliminates any other predators that may threaten the Oryctolagus cuniculus
population. Second, there is only one type of food available, which relates back to the
food chain issue above. Third, any other external influences such as natural disasters or
pollution are kept out. Other specific errors we found were the way how wolves hunt.
Wolves depend much more on their hearing and smelling skills in comparison to sight.
However, the only mutation related to this matter was the color of the Oryctolagus
cuniculus. The simulation has been built to be as similar as possible to reality, but for
simplicitys sake, has not been designed completely identical to the real world.

References
Adams, Wendy, Noah Podolefsky, and Jonathan Olson. "Natural Selection." Phet
Interactive Simulations. University of Colorado, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
Dictionary.com. IAC Cooperation, n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
"Oryctolagus cuniculus." Dog Breed Info. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
"Oryctolagus cuniculus." RSPCA. Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, n.d. Web. 13

Apr. 2014.

Acknowledgements and Contributions

Jay Jang - performed and analyzed two experiments, researched half of background
information, wrote about the Abstract, Objective, Key Terms, Data Collection, and
Sources of Error.
Jinho Yang - performed and analyzed two experiments as well, researched half of
background information, wrote about the Materials, Methods, Conclusion, and
References.

Kimberly Novak - analyzed hypothesis and introduced the simulation program.

Ben Summerton - assisted with the download of the simulation program.