Full URL for the website- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150109093727.htm
Author's name/source- Monash University
Date of the publication- January 9, 2015
Summary
Researches looked at some species of fish to help them answer a mysterious question. Their question was based on how populations come in different color variants: Why doesn't one color variant replace another color variant of a population. Also, researches wondered about why some variants of the same animal exist in nature. Color variants of the same species are huge examples of biological variation, but what adaptive significance and which evolutionary processes maintain them is still unknown. Researches decided to look at a species of fish called the red devil cichlid. This species comes in either a grey color with dark patterns, or a gold color with traces of red. The gold colored fish is genetically dominant. However, the darker colored fish is more common than the gold colored fish. The researches then took both types of the red devil cichlid and filmed them over some dark and light surfaces. They found out that the darker colored fish could change its brightness so it could match and blend to the surface it was on. The gold fish however could not do so. This means that the darker colored fish can blend in with its environment better, helping it hide from predators.
Relevance
This article is relevant to our biology class because it relates and refers to a lot of things we learned in chapter 14. Chapter 14 is all about evolution, which is what this article is relating to. The article refers to adaptation, which improves an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. The article talks about how the dark colored fish is more common because it is able to adapt better to the environment and blend in with it. This prevents it from being eaten from a predator, which leads it to produce more offspring. This idea also related to natural selection because the offspring that the dark colored fish would produce would have the inherited characteristics to blend in with the environment and survive. Also, the article reveals a lot about variation, which refers to differences among members of the same species. The researches looked at two fish of the same species with a different variations to help them answer a question of how those variants are maintained,
Does the evolution of skin color for plants and animals have any connections/similarities with the evolution of skin color for humans?
ReplyDeleteThe article talks about how the color of fish skin could blend to its surroundings. In this case, there are no connections between animal skin color and human skin color, because humans are at the top of the food chain and don't have any major predators to hide from by blending with the environment. For Humans, skin color changes due to sunlight: tanner/darker skin is the result of lots of sunshine. For fish and for most other animals, that doesn't seem to be the case.
DeleteAre all other color variants related to causing the animal to have an environmental advantage or are there other advantages of organisms within a species to vary in color like reproductive advantages?
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely other advantages within a species to vary in color besides environmental advantages. There are, like you said, reproductive advantages. When females look for mates, they are sometimes attracted to bold colors. In this case, having bold colors is an advantage because females can be attracted to males that have them and the two can later produce offspring.
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