Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Adapt, Migrate, or Die!
When faced with a problem that compromises the survivability of a species, the species really has three options: adapt, migrate, or die. Jerry Coyne brought up many examples of environmental stresses species have faced, such as predation or climate change, and how they have adapted over time to overcome these stresses, such as the development of cryptic coloration. We know many examples of species that have adapted through natural selection, but what about some species that have migrated or died because they did were not able to survive. Describe an environmental stress that can compromise the survival of a species; then, research and describe some ancient species that were affected by the stress in terms of making the species migrate or go extinct.
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ReplyDeleteOne species that has died from climate change and predation is the Woolly mammoth. Because the species was used to colder temperatures, there was a lot of fur, but this fur hindered dumping of excess heat,which caused exhaustion. Like many other ancient species, the Woolly mammoth went extinct during the Quaternary extinction event.
ReplyDeleteAn example of a species that was unable to adapt to environmental stresses was Homo neanderthalis, or the Neanderthal. The environmental stress that caused the eventual extinction of Neanderthals was competition with Cro-Magnon populations (Homo sapiens). At first, Neanderthals attempted to adjust to the situation by migrating, one of the choices a species can use to respond to environmental stress under the biological theme of evolution. The location to which Neanderthals migrated was Southern Spain, which was cut off to Cro-Magnon populations during the H4 climate event. However, Cro-Magnons eventually reached Southern Spain after the H4 climate event ended, therefore causing the environmental stress of competition for resources to return. Neanderthals were unable to adapt to this stress and no longer had locations to migrate to, which forces the Neanderthals to take the last response to environmental stress under the theme of evolution: dying and becoming extinct. (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081229105039.htm)
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of the year, we studied the behavior of animals and how they had to survive and reproduce under conditions like predation. Dodo birds or Raphus cucullatus(italicized)have been extinct for numerus years. These flightless birds became extinct in only a few years after it was discovered. This was because of Predation. According to Campbell, "Predation is a +/- interaction between species in which one species, the predator, kills and eats the other, the prey" (Campbell 1201). Based on this definition, the Dodo were faced with many predators like monkeys, rats and pigs brought in by the human migrators of the islands. These animals destroyed the eggs and ate the yolk. The human migrators were also harmful predators. Humans killed these birds for food and destroyed their habitats. These foreign predators didn't allow this bird to survive and reproduce and hence, this led to extinction, an evolutionary theme as Ray said. (http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i4/dodo.asp)
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