Gorilla Flipped Classroom activity
Get into teams of 2-5 people (the more people you have working on this, the easier it will be – please consider inviting individuals and pairs to join your team).
One team member should check their email for the invite to the Crowdmark assignment. They will need to collect names and email addresses from all team members to add them to the Crowdmark activity. That person will be submitting answers for the whole team. All other team members should stay on this page as you’ll need the resources here.
How to add a team member on Crowdmark
Open up the assignment from Crowdmark. You should see a description with a picture of gorillas, followed by a section for adding group members that looks like this:
Click the Add group members button and find your team mates by searching for their names or emails.
Video how-to
There’s a YouTube video that walks you through the process of adding group members to an assignment. Click the link below to open it in a new tab.
The first question asks you to consider which cranial traits gorillas and humans share. The simplified picture below is the one you need to answer the question, but the more detailed images of the lateral (side), dorsal (top) and ventral (bottom) views may be useful. The images come from DigiMorph, a digital library in Austin. Clicking on the images makes them larger.
labelled gorilla skull
Simplified label set for gorilla skull
gorilla lateral view
Lateral view of the skull of Gorilla gorilla. (Credit: https://digimorph.org/specimens/Gorilla_gorilla/skull/)
gorilla ventral view
Ventral view of the skull of Gorilla gorilla. (Credit: https://digimorph.org/specimens/Gorilla_gorilla/skull/)
gorilla dorsal view
Dorsal view of the skull of Gorilla gorilla. (Credit: https://digimorph.org/specimens/Gorilla_gorilla/skull/)
The Crowdmark worksheet has a set of questions asking you to consider sexual dimorphism in gorillas. Use the images below to help you decide which secondary traits might be useful for identifying male and female gorillas.
Moka_with_baby_gorilla_at_Pittsburgh_Zoo_2,_2012-02-17
Moka, a fifteen year old female western lowland gorilla at the Pittsburgh Zoo, with her new baby. The baby gorilla’s father is a twenty year old named Mrithi. (credit: Sage Ross, cc)
Gorilla gorilla crania
Western gorilla skull profiles (Gorilla gorilla, credit: D. Descouens, cc)
Western-lowland-gorillas-feeding
A family of Western gorillas feeding. (Credit: Arkive)
EMountain gorillas
A pair of Eastern Mountain gorillas (credit: Arkive)
Below are a pair of 3D models from Sketchfab. You should be able to move these around, so you can see them from different directions. The labels from question 1 should be useful for helping you to spot relevant elements in these models.
To complete the final questions, you will need to think about concepts from our unit on evolution. Below, you will see brief versions of the questions in Crowdmark. As a team, try to come to a consensus on the answers.
The article referred to in the questions is: Xue, Y., Prado-Martinez, J., Sudmant, P. H., Narasimhan, V., Ayub, Q., Szpak, M., … & Scally, A. (2015). Mountain gorilla genomes reveal the impact of long-term population decline and inbreeding. Science, 348(6231), 242-245. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa3952 You don’t need to read it to be able to complete this activity, but I included the reference and link in case you are interested.
Question 3
Experts who study gorilla genomes have observed that Eastern gorillas share DNA that must have come through interbreeding with a now extinct population of gorillas. Western gorillas lack this DNA evidence. The term that we might apply to describe interbreeding between populations is:
- genetic drift
- gene flow
- mutation
- natural selection
- sexual selection
Question 4
A research study collected DNA from museum specimens of Eastern Lowland Gorillas and compared them to DNA samples from living Eastern Lowland Gorillas. The museum samples were collected from individuals who had died between 1910 and 1962. The DNA from the living Eastern Lowland Gorillas showed a high degree of homozygosity compared to the museum samples. Based on what you’ve learned about evolution and genetics, which of the following two hypotheses are both plausible and relevant to the study of gorilla conservation?
- Eastern Lowland Gorilla numbers have been increasing rapidly, thereby reducing variation in the gene pool.
- There will be an increase in birth defects and infant mortality in modern populations because the genome lacks diversity.
- Mutations happen more frequently in older Eastern Lowland Gorilla populations because the genome is small.
- Eastern Lowland Gorilla numbers have been declining rapidly, thereby reducing variation in the gene pool.
- The museum samples may have deteriorated or become contaminated over time because curators were careless.
As a team, you need to identify 2 AND then pick one of them to justify in your answer.