Question

Lake Baikal is the oldest and deepest lake in the world. It is found in the middle of Siberia. In Lake Baikal there are 32 species of sculpin (a type of fish). All of these species are only found in Lake Baikal. You want to understand the evolutionary history of this group of fish and how speciation occurred for sculpin in Lake Baikal. A. What mechanism of speciation do you think has occurred in Lake Baikal sculpin. Provide your answer in the form of a hypothesis. (2 points) B. What are TWO types of additional information you would want to gather in order to test your hypothesis from A? (5 points)

Answer 1

Answer:

The. Two populations of sculpin lived on Lake Baikal, but a genetic change in one of the populations prevented them from crossing, thus creating a new species of sculpin.

B. The additional information I would use to test the hypotheses would be: 1) is there any species of fish similar to sculpin in the same lake? 2) what is the genetic change presented by the sculpins?

Explanation:

My hypothesis about sculpin fish states that sympathetic speciation has occurred. This speciation occurs when two populations of the same species can no longer promote crossings between them, thus creating an evolutionary process, which results in the creation of two distinct species, in the same habitat. I believe that this type of speciation is more common to happen in aquatic environments and in fish, since these environments present less physical barriers than the terrestrial environment. This usually occurs with the existence of genetic modifications within one of the populations. As a result, to test my hypothesis, I would need information about the existence of species similar to sculpin within the same lake, in addition to knowing what genetic differences between them would promote this type of speciation.