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Eliminating Forest or Savanna

African forest and savanna elephants diverged and started evolving independently over 2.5 million years ago. One of the 16 STR markers, marker FH127, can be used to easily distinguish between the two groups. The gel shows the alleles for marker FH127 found in a sample of the seized ivory (lane 1), in forest elephant populations (lane 2), and in savanna elephant populations (lane 3).

Based on the data, would you eliminate forest or savanna elephant populations as a possible source of the ivory? (Select the region that is least likely to be where the ivory came from by clicking on the dots below the elephant images.)

Unknown Elephant labeled with a question mark representing an elephant from an unknown origin and has white bands displayed at base pair values of 270 and 245.

Try again. Remember you are selecting the populations least likely to be where the ivory came from, so you are looking for differences in alleles.

Correct. The ivory sample's two alleles are present among the savanna elephant populations and not the forest elephants. You can exclude forest elephants.

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