EVOLUTION

TOXIN ADAPTATION

• Poison Dart Frog: found in the tropical rainforests from Costa Rica to Brazil.
• Adapted to have a poisonous coating on their bodies and bright coloring to protect them from their predators.

MIMICRY ADAPTATIONS

• Scarlet King Snake: found in sections of northern Georgia and Tennessee.
• Mimics the coloring of the Eastern Coral Snake which is venomous. The Scarlet King Snake is non-venomous but to predators, it now has the appearance of being venomous due to the other species.

CAMOUFLAGE ADAPTATIONS

• Stickbug (Phasmids): found all over, but thrive in forests and grasslands.
• Changed over time to look like a twig on a tree so as to not stick out to predators.

STABILIZING SELECTION

• An example would be a robin and her clutch of eggs. They typically lay four eggs due to stabilizing selection. If they were to lay a larger clutch, the chicks would be malnourished. A smaller clutch than four would result in almost no viable offspring. Stabilizing selection has taken the clutch in the middle.

DISRUPTIVE SELECTION

• An example for this would be gray and Himalayan (gray and white) rabbits. These two are better suited to fit in with rocky environments unlike white rabbits.

DIRECTIONAL SELECTION

• An example for this type would be London's peppered moths. Where it was a more industrialized and polluted setting, there were darker moths but where there was a less industrialized and more urban setting, there were the lighter colored moths. The species went in two different directions to better suit their environment.

SEXUAL SELECTION

• Example of this would be the Superb Bird-of-Paradise. The males have a dark colored plume with bright splotches of blue. Females choose by their mating call and plumage, but also by health.

DIVERGENT EVOLUTION

• An example would be the common ancestor of the human, bat, whale, etc. we diverged from them into new species but still have homologous bone structures, causing this to be classified as divergent evolution.

CONVERGENT EVOLUTION

• An example of this woukd be the wings of birds, bats, insects, etc. They all have the same structure and purpose, but evolved independently.

COEVOLUTION

• An example of this would be of birds preying on butterflies which caused butterflies to adapt with mimicry, causing the birds to not want to eat them. This species had to evolve quickly to avoid being preyed on by another species.