An exploration of threespine stickleback body shape evolution using HHMI BioInteractive Data Explorer

    

Peter J. Park and Kasey J. Christopher

Advances in Biology Laboratory Education, 2025, Volume 45

https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v45.art18

Supplemental Materials: https://doi.org/10.37590/able.v45.sup18

Abstract

Data collection, visualization, and analysis provide engaging ways to integrate the teaching of biology and statistics. The exceptionally wide range of habitat adaptation and known ancestral conditions for many phenotypes of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) makes this species a suitable model to explore relationships among morphology, ecology, and evolution using statistics. Through this lab activity, learners explore morphological variation using digital photographs or preserved specimens of stickleback from a shallow lake and a deep lake, in conjunction with a novel user-friendly statistical web tool, HHMI BioInteractive Data Explorer (https://www.biointeractive.org/classroom-resources/data-explorer). Differences in body shapes are measured using the ratio of body depth by standard length, and learners generate hypotheses about body shapes and various other phenotypes in relation to ecological variables such as habitat type and diet. Although this lab activity was conducted with preserved stickleback specimens during the ABLE 2024 conference, the present work focuses on the use of digital photographs of stickleback specimens, which are made available as a supplement. HHMI Data Explorer is used to build graphs and to perform statistical analyses to evaluate learner-generated hypotheses. The versatility of this activity and the mentioned free web tool can serve as a platform for multiple applications and contexts, such as evidence-based teaching strategies and quantitative data analysis.

Keywords:  evolution, data visualization, data analysis, body shape, threespine stickleback

University of Maryland (2024)