Anthropology 130 Online Research Simulation 1
Tarsier Research Project
50 points total
Instructions
This research simulation will take you through a fictional example of genetic inheritance. The
textbook and lecture slides on heredity, genetics, biological evolution, and population genetics
should have all of the information that you need to successfully complete the assignment. Use
Internet resources as a last resort since that information is less controlled.
Enter your answers into the Research Simulation 1 Answer Sheet Word document and upload it
to Canvas to turn in.
Assignment Start
Congratulations! You have been accepted into a prestigious research program. You will be
joining a team of primatologists who have started to conduct research on a population of tarsiers
living on an island in the Philippines. (Tarsiers are
hand-sized primates who share a distant common
ancestor with humans but evolved in their own way to
survive in forests). The researchers believe that tarsier
fur color is strongly influenced by their genes, so they
plan to genetically test tarsiers of different colors to see
what their genotypes are like.
Since you’re the newest member of the research team,
the primatologists have given you the work of

of

1
11
{ Caption: A tarsier. }

preparing the data that they have collected to present to The National Science Foundation. At
least you get to work in the Philippines!
Part One
The international airport is bustling with activity as you wait for your flight to the Philippines.
Announcements in many languages ring out over the speakers. You make a small game of
trying to identify the languages being spoken. Surprisingly, you hear a young voice next to you:
“Hi are you a scientist?”
A child full of curiosity has climbed into the seat next to yours while you were distracted. You
reply to the child that you are indeed a scientist. The child looks up at your with beaming eyes. “I
have a question. In school, we learn about the scientis- scientific method, but I didn’t understand
something. Could you tell me the difference between a hyp- hypo- hypothemesis and a theory?”

of

2
11
{ Your new workplace (not really). }

1.
Explain to the child the difference between a
hypothesis
and a
theory
in your own way,
based on the book and lecture. Use at least one sentence. (1 point)
2.
The child has you attention for now. Continue by explaining how the process of scientific
research improves our knowledge over time while bad data and theories are discarded. (1
point)
Satisfied, the child climbs off the seat and wanders away. Soon, the gate opens and you board
the plane to your research adventure.
Part Two
By the time you are able to join the team in the Philippines, the researchers have already taken
genetic samples of wild tarsiers. Analyzing their DNA, scientists have isolated a few genotypes,
or the genetic makeup, or a few individuals. The genotypes have been given names following
the standard convention of using capital and lowercase letters to represent different alleles in a
gene.
For each of the following four genotypes, indicate in the answer sheet whether it is
heterozygous
,
homozygous dominant
,
or homozygous recessive
: (1 point total)
3.
Hh
4.
MM
5.
ff

of

3
11

6.
Make up your own heterozygous genotype, using a letter of your choice (1 point).
Part Three
The scientists noticed that the tarsiers of this particular island came in two varieties of fur color:
brown and silver. These colors are determined by the Fur gene, which has two possible alleles.
Comparing the fur phenotype with the genotype, they found that the uppercase ‘
F
’ allele codes
for brown fur while the lowercase ‘
f
’ allele codes for silver fur.
Based on this information, would the fur color of tarsiers with the following genotype be brown or
silver? (1 point total).

of

4
11
{ Caption: Photoshopped renditions of the silver and
brown tarsiers for this assignment. Real tarsiers do
have differences in fur color, though!}

7.
Ff  
8.
ff   
9.
FF
Part Four
Continuing their research, the primatologists temporarily capture a few tarsiers to observe over
a few days. Two of the captive tarsiers, one male and one female, are very fond of each other.
Looking at their DNA, scientists found that one has the genotype
FF
for the fur color gene and
the other tarsier has
ff
as its genotype. One of your fellow researchers, Jherry,  is filling out a
Punnett square to diagram the possible genotypes of any offspring of this tarsier pair. He shows
you his template:
Jherry is eager to demonstrate what he learned when he took ANTH 101 last semester: “You
see, each parent’s genotype is given in the gray squares. With this information, we just move
the alleles for Parent 1 across each row and drop the alleles for Parent 2 down each column to
see how these alleles would combine in their offspring. For this pairing…”

of

5
11
Parent 2
F
F
Parent
1
f
f

Not to be outdone, you jump in to help Jherry figure out his Punnett square.
10.
What would be each offspring genotype in the four white blanks in the Punnett square? In
the answer sheet write the genotype derived from the parents in each white square. (1 point)
11.
What would be the fur color of all of these offspring, and why? Explain your reasoning with
at least a full sentence. (1 points)
One of the researchers, Lhindsay, comes back excitedly from the forest: “The two parent
tarsiers had a baby!” Being a top tarsier researcher, she already has a sample of the newborn’s
DNA to test. The results show that the offspring with the genotype
Ff
. Lhindsay’s mind reels
from the possibilities of this young tarsier. “What if the
Ff
baby grows up and mates with
another
Ff
tarsier?! What types of offspring are possible?” You work to answer Lhindsay’s question by
making another Punnett square. You start with the parents’ separated alleles in the gray
squares and then work to fill in the four white squares with the offspring’s genotypes:

of

6
11
Parent 2
Parent
1

12.
What would be in each of the white squares in the answer sheet showing the possible
genotypes of the grandchildren if the baby
Ff
tarsier grew up and mated with another
Ff
tarsier? (1 points)
13.
For each of the genotypes from question #12, what would be the resulting phenotype or
actual fur color? Fill in each the correct phenotype for each white square in the Punnett
Square with either the word ‘
brown
’ or ‘
silver
’ based on the genotype from #12. (1 points)
14.
Based on your results, which phenotype (brown or silver) would be more likely to appear in
the grandchildren? Explain your reasoning in at least a complete sentence, explaining what
you see in your previous answer. (2 points)
“Thank you!” Lhindsay exclaims. She runs off to tell Jherry and the other researchers the good
news, along with your additional information.
Part Five
The researchers are grateful that you have gotten this work done for them so that they can keep
conducting fieldwork in the forest. One day, the researchers find a family of tarsiers with red fur!
A new allele in the fur color gene must have appeared due to a change in the DNA of one of the
tarsiers. This new allele then got passed to the next generation. Lindsay is very excited by this
new discovery: “The red fur allele must have been created the… oh, what is the force of
evolution that is the only source of new alleles?”
15.
Help out Lhindsay: what is the force of biological evolution that is the only source of new
alleles? (1 points)

of

7
11

Observations of the red fur tarsiers show that
they blend in better with the reddish brown
tree trunks in the environment compared to
both
the brown and silver fur tarsiers. This
means that the red fur tarsiers are less likely
to be caught and eaten by the tarsier-eating
hawks that patrol the forest.
16.
Given the above pattern over many
generations, would the red fur tarsiers be
more or less common compared to the
brown and silver tarsiers? (1 point)
You start documenting these results for the
team, but you need to recall the best vocabulary term to describe what is going on.
17.
The change in fur color trends of the tarsier population, due to each color affecting
reproductive success differently, is an example of which force of evolution? (2 points)
18.
You know that there are tarsiers living on the other side of the river where you found the red
fur tarsiers. Due to the rapid current of the river, the tarsiers on one side rarely meet the
tarsiers on the other. Is this an example of
high
or
low
gene flow between these two
groups? (1 point)

of

8
11
{ Caption: The newly discovered red tarsier (still
fictional for this assignment!). }

Part Six
After filling in the details of your report, you join the research team to eat dinner and discuss the
findings under the big research tent. Lhindsay and Jherry thank you for being so helpful. The
primary investigator of this team, the P.I., strolls up to you and hands you a celebratory lumpia
(spring roll).
“Excellent work on the tarsier fur colors. The red fur tarsiers will really add to what we know
about this branch of primates, and all primates in general. We still don’t know if the new red fur
allele is dominant or recessive. If it is recessive, like the f allele, then only F will be dominant for
this gene, overriding the other alleles. If it turns out that the red fur allele is as dominant as the
brown fur allele… what is the word for that situation?”
19.
Impress the P.I.: what is the term for a gene where multiple alleles for a gene are dominant?
(1 point)
20.
If the red fur allele is also dominant, what could a tarsier look like if it had both the red allele
and the brown allele? (1 point)
“There is a chance that the fur gene affects more than just the fur color: eye color may be
affected as well! In that case, this one gene affects multiple traits.”
21.
What is the term for a gene that affects more than one trait? (1 point)
“There are so many complications to genetics beyond what we just went over. I know that you
have read the book
Essentials of Physical Anthropology
by Clark Spencer Larsen. He’s a great
professor! Do you recall what the book said about regulatory and structural genes?”

of

9
11

22.
What is the definition of a regulatory gene? Use a complete sentence and rephrase the
definition from what the book says. (1 point)
23.
What is the definition of a structural gene? Use a complete sentence and rephrase the
definition from what the book says. (1 point)
24.
What is the name for the type of gene found in many different animals that controls the
development of body parts? (1 point)
Your Primary Investigator nods in contentment. “It’s been great chatting with you. I’m very
excited about analyzing these data and adding on to our scientific knowledge. To be honest, I’m
a little competitive. Another research team may discover the same things about tarsiers and
publish their discovery first. It’s like when Charles Darwin was almost too late in publishing his
work on natural selection because another researcher was following the same clues to the
same theory. Now, Darwin is the famous name for natural selection, while the other guy is less
well known. In fact, what was his name? Maybe you read an article about it.”
25.
Who was the researcher who almost announced his discovery of natural selection before
Charles Darwin did it? (1 point)
Part Seven
The next day, you stop by the nearby town of Corella to visit an Internet café and see what is
going on with social media. You received some messages from friends asking about what you
did recently in your research.

of

10
11

26.
Write a short status message of around 150 words describing what you did and learned
while studying tarsiers as if you were really there. College-level writing is
not
required! Have
fun with it. (2 points)
Conclusion
The eventful field season concluded, you return home from the Philippines to turn in your
answer sheet. The researchers continue their work on finding more about tarsiers. They can
now test the new hypothesis that the red fur will become more common in the future. By careful
observation of the environment, scientists can make and test hypotheses about how the tarsier
genotype and phenotype are interrelated. This adds a little bit of new information to the existing
scientific knowledge. We will learn more about tarsiers later in the course!
Be sure to have answered every question in the answer sheet before submitting it on Canvas.

of

11
11
Caption: The public market in Corella (it’s a real town!).