ADAPTATION AND SURVIVAL
Adaptation can have
several meanings, BUT for this question it refers to the
evolutionary process, occurs over several generations, and
produces organisms better suited to their environment. The tail
of the squirrel serves as a counterbalance as the animal leaps
and turns; serves as a blanket to keep the animal warm; and
serves as an aerial rudder while the animal soars from electrical
wires to trees. This tail has adapted to serve many purposes. The
burr that you painstakingly remove from your sock after a walk in
the woods, ensures that you or some other animal will carry these
seeds to a new location far from the parent plant. Consider the
webbed feet of ducks, long narrow leaves (spines) of a cactus,
and humps of camels as adaptive structures that help these life
forms survive.
Natural selection involves interactions between organisms and
other organisms and between organisms and their environment.
Adaptations resulting from natural selection can often times be
directly related to environmental factors or to selective forces
of other organisms.
 (Picture taken at the Detroit Zoo---Butterfly House) |
What kinds of adpatations
have evolved over time within the Atlas Moth populations
to ensure their survival as a species? Look at the tip of the wing--far left...Does it resemble the head of a SNAKE? Study the lower right of the wing...Does it look like the head of an OWL? What possible benefits could this kind of mimicry have for the population of Atlas Moths? How do these markings impact predator / prey relationships? THINK / CLICK |
JUST
THINKING ABOUT ADAPTATIONS
Evolutionary processes build
on what already exists. As the populations of moths evolved over
time, those with these special markings of "snake-head"
and "owl head" survived in greater frequency than the
moths without these markings. There is always some variation of
in hertiable characteristics within every species of organism;
some of these characteristics will give some individuals
advantage over others in surviving to maturity and reproductive
age; and these individuals in the populations will be more likely
to have more offspring, which will be more likely than others to
survive and reproduce.
These markings are most likely the result of pigmentation
patterns..(color patterns). Pigments are the direct result of
protein expression and can therefore, be linked directly to a
moth's DNA / genes which are responsible for making proteins.
Overtime the genes that produced proteins which provided the
"snake and owl head" markings were passed along in the
population of the Atlas moth.