Student Version

 

Name ___________________________             Date ________________

Mystery Trait - Scales and Plates Activity:  Discovering  the inheritance patterns of hidden genes through inductive reasoning.

GenScope File:  ScaledDragon.gs, PlatedDragon.gs


Open the Scaled Dragon file and you will see a dragon that you may not have ever seen before. It has scales all over its body! What's going on here??? Here are some questions for you to work on as you think about this problem.
 

1.       Is this new trait genetic? In other words, did the scaled dragon inherit scales from its parents? Circle one answer and then explain why you think so.

Yes      No
How can you tell? Explain why you think so.
 
 
 
 
 
 
2.      If it is genetic, how are scales inherited? Is it a dominant condition (like horns), a recessive condition (like wings), and incompletely dominant condition (like legs) or something else? How can you tell?
 
 
 
 
3.       Is the gene for scales sex-linked?  Put a check mark next to one choice only. ___ Sex-linked (on the X or Y chromosome)?
___ Autosomal (on the number 1 or number 2 chromosome)?

How can you tell?
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Open the file Plated Dragon and you will see another different kind of dragon. This one has plates on its neck. Now try to figure out information about this trait. Here are the same questions as before (but some of the answers are different!)
 

4.       Is this new trait genetic? In other words, did the plated dragon inherit plates from its parents?

Yes      No

How can you tell?
 

 
 
 
 
 
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