Why Are Living Organism so Diverse ?
Why are Living Organism so Diverse ?
Regardless of world's life diversity, we all, from the ant to the whale and us humans have DNA linkage, which gives us the evidence for one common ancestor. The question that comes up now is how from this very primitive common ancestor did we all end up so diverse. Biologist have dedicated they life to answer this question,
Through this essay I shall show how through different aspects life has become so diverse.
Timescale
Life as not evolve suddenly from its primitive form to complex organism like it is observed today, changes have operated over large timescales. For example Homo sapiens is the result of 4 million years of evolution from the Australopithecus afarensis. Homo sapiens as seen on diagram 1.1 as evolved through many evolutionary stages before becoming what he is today. This scale of time shows us how life has evolved gradually over great amount of time and through different stages. From this fact of gradual evolution, each organism today has evolved, each one over great timescales. This has given them the chances to be exposed to possible changes in environment and population. These changes than have given life the possibility to have substantial changes in its biodiversity. Therefore it can be seen that life diversity before and today is influence by gradual changes over large timescales. This principle is called gradualism, it was used by Darwin to explain biological evolution and the principle was influence by Charles Lyell (1797-1875) uniformitarianism and James Hutton (1721-1797). Diagram 1.1 human evolutionary tree over 4 million years timescale
Environmental changes and differences
The change and difference in environment leads to adaptation between individuals, a good example would be the Galapagos finches. As seen on picture 1.1 three species of finch have evolved on different islands and environment, which than have lead to the diversity of three finches over each island. Each finches through
Regardless of world's life diversity, we all, from the ant to the whale and us humans have DNA linkage, which gives us the evidence for one common ancestor. The question that comes up now is how from this very primitive common ancestor did we all end up so diverse. Biologist have dedicated they life to answer this question,
Through this essay I shall show how through different aspects life has become so diverse.
Timescale
Life as not evolve suddenly from its primitive form to complex organism like it is observed today, changes have operated over large timescales. For example Homo sapiens is the result of 4 million years of evolution from the Australopithecus afarensis. Homo sapiens as seen on diagram 1.1 as evolved through many evolutionary stages before becoming what he is today. This scale of time shows us how life has evolved gradually over great amount of time and through different stages. From this fact of gradual evolution, each organism today has evolved, each one over great timescales. This has given them the chances to be exposed to possible changes in environment and population. These changes than have given life the possibility to have substantial changes in its biodiversity. Therefore it can be seen that life diversity before and today is influence by gradual changes over large timescales. This principle is called gradualism, it was used by Darwin to explain biological evolution and the principle was influence by Charles Lyell (1797-1875) uniformitarianism and James Hutton (1721-1797). Diagram 1.1 human evolutionary tree over 4 million years timescale
Environmental changes and differences
The change and difference in environment leads to adaptation between individuals, a good example would be the Galapagos finches. As seen on picture 1.1 three species of finch have evolved on different islands and environment, which than have lead to the diversity of three finches over each island. Each finches through
References: - Campbell, Reece, Biology International edition 2005, Pearson publish 2005 - Mary Jones and Geoff Jones, Advanced biology, Cambridge publish 2004 - www.geocities.com/brisbane_hoppers/Mantids.htm Word Count: 1448 words