Exercise: Adaptive Radiation




BIO372 : Extinction : Pattern & Opportunity : Exercise: Adaptive Radiation

Exercise: Adaptive Radiation

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The evolution of horses during the Cenozoic Era (Age of Mammals) provides many fossils illustrating adaptive radiation.

1. What conditions provided the evolutionary opportunity that horses took advantage of: empty niches resulting from a mass extinction; new opportunities resulting from environmental changes; new adaptations providing previously unoccupied niches; etc.? Explain.

2. Describe an instance of how one of the horses exploited the evolutionary opportunity available to it.

3. What is the evidence which justifies the description you gave above?

4. Consider your description as a hypothesis for the evolution of horses. What would be an alternative hypothesis for adaptive radiation in horses?

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