Ecomorphology

Question 1

ecomorphology

Answer 1

study of relationship between functional design of organisms and the environment

has to do with

1. effect of environ on funct design (adaptive and phylogenetic explanations)
2. influence of funct morph on ecol. of an organisms (funcitonal constraints and morph variaton and fitness)

Question 2

adaptive explanations

Answer 2

consider features to have arisen independently and have improved reproductive success of ancestral organisms

Question 3

to be an adaption there has to be…

Answer 3

variation from earlier form
heritability through gene transmission
enhancement of reporductive success

Question 4

example of sickle-cell anemia

Answer 4

1. cell is sickled=variation from earlier form
2. heritable though hemoglobin gene
3. enhances reproductive success for heterozygotes in environments w/ malaria
   this was a balancing selection

Question 5

is sickle cell adaptive

Answer 5

yes in environments with malaria

Question 6

phylogenetic history

Answer 6

often prevents anticipated course of evolution with a lineage bc of various constraints

Question 7

convergence

Answer 7

acquisition of the same biological train in unrelated lineages

Question 8

parallelism

Answer 8

independent emergence of similar traits in different but related species

Question 9

homoplasy

Answer 9

character shared by self of species but not their common ancestor

Question 10

functional constraints

Answer 10

factors which make pops resistance to evolutionalry change bc of organisms are required to function adequately in environments
ex; bulldog would die w/o people

Question 11

canalization

Answer 11

the intensifying likelihood of a species to continue to look like its ancestor due to evolutionary constraints

Question 12

morphological variation and fitness

Answer 12

interaction between variability of environ and the variability of the organisms within it

Question 13

Wainwright 1991

Answer 13

lab results say that:
larger fish have more crushing force potential
more crushing force potential means that these fish can comsume larger mollusks
lab can’t tell us if they actually do consume larger mollusks

field results:
high crushing force potential in fish means that they have a higher percentage of hard prey in diet
specialization of crushing force means that there is less diet breadth

Question 14

extinct organisms

Answer 14

feeding ecology in bears is distinguishable based on craniofacial morphology

by comparing extinct to extant we can figure things out about extinct species

ex: bear face/teeth anatomy