Week Ten: the link between phenotypic morphology and specialisation, how does it in fit into evolution of species, conclusion.

And suddenly it’s the final blog!

This week I’ll be rounding off the blog with the importance of the link between phenotypes, morphologies and the evolution of specialisation to differing environments, niches and habitats. The most important benefit to being specalised to habitat is a better rate of survival as a species -which is after all the goal of all organisms: to pass on genes to the next generation. There are dangers associated with this however; as organisms that are better specialised to one specific set of conditions can be severely harmed or suffer extinction if circumstances occur where the environment to which the organism has become specialised, changes or becomes destroyed (Munday, 2004).

Many animals have become specialised within their environments due to a series of small changes throughout populations over time, if there is a better survival fitness to be had, selective pressures will do the job to drive this ‘fitness increase’ to become more predominantly seen within the population through the increased fecundity of such trait possessing individuals (Gaillard et al, 2000) many know this as natural selection which is a mechanism of evolution. These changes in fitness can occur from various circumstances, which can come from sexual selection, changed environments, resource availability and a myriad of other possibly present circumstances.

Often phenotypes and morphology play a substantial role in determining who is seen as more fit, or who survives better (Grant & Grant 1996). Changes toward better suited traits in an organism can often result in exaggerated features or a change in body shapes, sizes, colours and forms over time. Morphology differs greatly among the myriad species on earth, overall helping species to thrive and survive. This blog has been a very small glimpse into the diversity of traits, features and morphologies that are present today. The world is full of wonderful, infinitely interesting animals and plants, I would greatly encourage a continued interest in this subject!

Thank you for reading!

References

Munday, P. 2004, Habitat loss, resource specialization, and extinction on coral reefs, Global Change Biology, Vol 10, issue 10, pp 1642–1647

Gaillard, J. Festa-Bianchet, M. Yoccoz, N. Loison, A. and Toigo, C. 2000, Temporal Variation in Fitness Components and population Dynamics of Large herbivores, Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Vol 31, pp 367-393

Grant, R. Grant, P. 1996, High Survival of Darwin’s Finch Hybrids: Effects of Beak Morphology and Diets, Ecology: Ecological Society of America, Vol 77, issue 2, pp 500-509