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Discuss Convergence In Animals Providing Examples From Both Arthropods And Vertebrates

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Discuss convergence in animals, providing examples from both arthropods and vertebrates. (discussing convergence in the phylum arthropods with examples from within this phylum and likewise for the vertebrates.)

Convergent evolution is the process in which organisms which are not closely related derive akin traits separately due to the need for adaptation to similar environments or ecological niches. There may be resemblances at a phylogenetic level, but the basic DNA sequences are different.
Morphologically, convergent evolution occurs when different species live in similar environments and hence adapt to the same environmental factors, such as challenges to reproduction and survival. Convergent evolution can also happen due to random mutation. …show more content…

As in vertebrate higher brain centers, the insect mushroom bodies function in associative, context dependent and spatial learning and memory, and in sensory integration. In both vertebrates and insects, reliance upon these behaviors and associated enlargement of the relevant brain centers might be encountered in the context of food acquisition. Examples in vertebrates include large hippocampi in food-caching parid birds that must remember the locations of their hidden food stores, and larger total brain sizes in birds that display flexible and innovative food acquisition behaviors. It has been noted in mammals that as brains and brain regions increase in size, they become increasingly subcompartmentalized. One potential explanation for this evolutionary trend is that as neuron number increases in large brains, it becomes prohibitively expensive energetically to build and maintain connections among them all. Networks therefore evolve to minimize long-distance connections while maintaining local circuits, the latter of which may diverge into distinct functional subcompartments. These subcompartments might act as parallel processing units for different aspects of a single computational task, as observed in the 30+ functional subdivisions of the macaque visual cortex or acquire entirely new functions, such as the specialization of Broca’s area of the cortex for language processing in

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Their goals also had differences like how many risks they took and also the level of risk each took. Hatshepsut risked her chance at being a Pharaoh, she did that by slowly taking more power from the Pharaoh. Meanwhile, Perseus risked his life. Perseus risked his life to become a hero by taking a chance and slaying Medusa. Perseus could have been turned to stone by Medusa but kept his promise to Athena, The Giant, and Hermes.

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Vertebrates are known to be animals with backbones. Tooth reduction is one of the major evolutionary trends that developed among major vertebrate groups that allowed for the transition from aquatic to terrestrial life. Evolution of limbs and being able to breath air are other evolutionary trends that took placeThese trends include improved respiration and protective and insulating body coverings. More over the transition from water to land also included changing to more efficient reproductive methods like having a placenta for some animals or egg layers for other animals. Lastly, the morphology of organisms evolved such that for land they would have paired, muscular appendages used for crawling and

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Without variation all the generations would stay the same and natural selection would not happen. The changes in phenotype in the next generation is because of the changes in frequency of alleles (or variation). c) This statement is also true. Adaptation is defined as a trait that increases the survival in a particular environment. For example, adaption can happen if a plant is in a cold habitat where there is less precipitation, it can adapt to those circumstances by growing shorter to avoid cold winds and growing longer roots to get more water.

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(R. Bijlsma, 2005). This process is known as genotypic adaptation or evolutionary adaptation. These phenomena are important from an evolutionary perspective. The possible occurrence of evolutionary adaptation and the rate at which it can proceed depends on the presence

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The study focuses on the number of neurons in the brains of more than two dozen species of birds ranging in size from tiny to large. The new study provides an explanation that birds can perform complex behaviors because birds forebrains contain a lot more neurons than anyone had previously thought. The study provides an answer that anatomists have been questioning, which is, how can birds with their small brains perform complicated cognitive behaviors? The study of the bird brain interests me because the size of the bird brain is compared to the size of an unshelled walnut (depending on species of bird), versus the human brain which is about three-four pounds (average size of adult human). The human brain is so much bigger than the bird brain and it contains so many more neurons making humans so much smarter than the bird species or any other animal

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I was intrigued by the parallels that could be drawn between us as a species and our fellow mammals (neurologically speaking) and so began to dig deeper into the area of study. I was surprised at how varied the specialisms of neuroscientists were

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This inner core layer of the brain keeps the body’s basic functions running smoothly. Another system is the limbic system, which includes the amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus. These structures are responsible for memory, motivation, emotion, and learning. The largest part of the brain is the

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The hippocampus is another structure of the limbic system; this structure plays a huge role in memory. The hippocampus is involved in encoding new, short-term memories, and it is also involved in retrieval of old

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As seen by looking at the geologic time scale it is clear that different environments allow for different evolution to occur. The three theories

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According to Charles Darwin, using or disusing a certain trait can determine how a species will change overtime, "I think there can be no doubt that use in our domestic animals has strengthened and enlarged certain parts, and disuse diminished them; and that such modifications are inherited," (Darwin 175). Thus, Darwin is implying that when a species uses a certain quality for survival that trait is further developed to increase the likelihood of survival; for example, the beak shapes of finches are morphed to be better suited for certain foods. Darwin also implies that when a certain trait is not used that ability is diminished; for example, a mole cannot see because it lives in the dark most of its life and does not rely on the ability of sight (175-204). Moreover, how an animal or plant adapts is dependent on the use or disuse of a variation, and according to the scholar Noguera-Solano, "the origin of the variation does not arise in order to resolve the organism's needs to adapt" (Noguera-Solano). This means that the origin of the variation is changed from the adaptation in organisms.

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It is now known that the brain and the gut are connected through a network

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Organisms can evolve to enhance their ability to catch prey, or flee predators. Coevolution occurs in a predator-prey relationship when the prey evolves in response to pressures exerted by its predator. The predator then evolves in response to the changes in the prey (or vice versa). Inheritable adaptive traits evolve through natural selection, the process by which organisms that have developed favorable traits are capable of surviving and reproducing at greater rates, thus passing their adaptive traits to their offspring. Birds and caterpillars have a predator-prey

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In our example between the birds and the Platypus, we have an example of a divergent evolution, when a species diverges over time into two different species, resulting in a species becoming less like the original one, differently of convergent evolution, when unrelated organisms evolve similarities when adapting to similar environments (rbssbiology,

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Evidence of Evolution Evolution is the change of the organisms over time with small or drastic change. These changes can affect an organism’s style of living. There are multiple pieces of evidence to find out if evolution is occurring. Some piece of proof are fossils, embryology, comparative anatomy, and molecular biology.

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Leadership Journal Report Assignment Skills Inventory: The skills inventory, which includes technical, human, and conceptual skill, helps me to measure my three leadership competencies of me. It lets me to understand how my skills separate to three leadership skill approaches. According to our textbook, although all of three skills are important to leaders, the importance of each skill varies between different management levels. By scoring it, I got 19 in technical skill, 21 in conceptual skill, and 25 in human skill, which is the highest one.

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