Evolution on the Wing

a Sunday with a Scientist Event at the State Museum

The Montooth & Meiklejohn Labs teamed up in February 2016 to teach the community about Darwin, Evolution, Diversity and Wings. Activities highlighted how natural, sexual and artificial selection have shaped the wing for more than just flight. People of all ages bred fancy pigeons using the computer game Pigeonetics! and fancy blocks, learned about butterfly wing evolution playing Mimic Memory, watch fruit flies "singing" to their mates, and had their pictures taken being flashy!

Sexual Selection at the UNL Science EXPO

an outreach event associated with the National Science Olympiad

The Montooth & Meiklejohn Labs teamed up in Summer 2015 to teach the community about animal courtship, reproductive isolation and speciation. Along with participants of all ages, we ran an experiment where participants observed courtship between male and female fruit flies that were either of the same or different species. Participants scored successful copulation to determine whether the females of each species showed preference for males of their own species.

Along with Dai Shizuka and John DeLong, we have modified this experiment to use in a 200-level evolution and ecology lab course offered here at UNL

---