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Teleost Fish Case Study

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1. Describe and contrast two hypotheses proposed to explain the high diversity of teleost fish in coral reef habitats.
The teleost fish evolved during the Jurassic period more than 150 million years ago which has led to the high diversity of this group. One hypotheses proposed about the high diversity of teleost fish is that there has been extensive gene duplications in the class Actinopterygii. Gene duplication is proven to show that with the more gene duplication events the more diversity that organism will have. This is a trend that has been studied in tetrapods and primitive species specifically in hagfish and lampreys (Holland et al, 1994). The duplication events would potentially lead to multiple gene families being re-purposed in evolutionary development. These re-purposed genes …show more content…

Describe two attributes of the deep sea pelagic ecosystem that pose challenges for its inhabitants. For each of these, identify and describe 2 strategies or adaptations that address these problems.
One attribute of the deep sea pelagic ecosystem that poses a challenge for its inhabitants is the hydrostatic pressure. The water pressure in the ocean increases by 1 atm for each ten meters in depth so doing the math the pressure at 11000m or the bottom of the deep sea is around 1,100 atm. These high pressure eliminates the use of a swim bladder, being it would compress the air within the organism and render it useless (Childress et al, 1993). The high pressure will also distort the biomolecules that are found in species that dwell in low pressure areas. To combat this problem species that live in high pressure areas have adapted to the high pressure with molecules that are resistant to the effects of high pressure. These molecules can be found in structures used in their membrane and in proteins that are required for life. For example some organisms use "piezolytes”. These are small organic molecules that prevent pressure from distorting large biomolecules (Childress et al,

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