Rock Pocket Mouse movie

The American Southwest is a fantastic place to study rock pocket mice with different coat colors. Lava flows created patches of dark rock among the surrounding light-colored sand. Researchers noticed that black rock pocket mice were more common on the dark lava flows, whereas the tan rock pocket mice were more common on the light-colored sand. They suggested that these patterns could be explained by evolution by natural selection. But what is the evidence for this claim?

Watch the movie The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection and Adaptation at least once. Make notes in the Developing Explanation Table document. You will continue to expand on and use this document in the next two lessons.

Over several lessons, we will build up to writing an explanation of why rock pocket mice have two coat colors. This will be a full scientific explanation which will include a claim supported by several pieces of evidence and reasoning. 

So take notes on the Table to Develop and Explanation.