Rock Pocket Mouse Project
The Valley of Fire, New Mexico
The home of the Rock Pocket Mouse, a creature that is a perfect example of natural selection, and how animals adapt to their environment. The rock pocket Mouse started as a light, sandy mouse that would stick out to other predators. Now, through natural selection, they have become gray, darker color, and camouflaged creatures within the valley. this evolution started close to 1000 years ago with lava flow, completely changing the environment for the tan, Rock Pocket Mouse.
what is the time frame/time frames of the rock pocket mouse?
Over 1000 years ago, the pinacate lava flow spewed across the valley of fire, leaving most of it a dark, black surface throughout. With most of the mice having sandy color fur, this made them stick out to predators such as the hawk and the snake. this caused them to change to a dark fur color.
What is Driving the Natural selection of the Rock Pocket Mouse?
living in a dark-colored habitat, such as the Pinacate lava flow causes their fur color to slowly change to a dark gray and black.
Quote:
"The change in color over evolutionary time in the population is driven by predators weeding out the mice that don't match their background."
what is the decrease/increase in the valley of fire?
In recent times, scientists have realized that the tan mice that can be easily spotted are starting to get picked off. In hindsight, this shows that the darker-colored mice are flourishing and surviving the valley of fire, blended in.
Hawk
Snake