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Adaptation and Survival , livre ebook

Capstone Global Library - Robert Snedden

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Why do tigers have stripes? Do they choose to have them, or is that just how they are? Adaptation and Survival explains what is meant by the fitness of an organism and shows how adaptations improve a plant or animal's chances of survival to have offspring. It tackles common confusions about the science and shows how topics are relevant to the reader.

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Publié par	Capstone Global Library
Date de parution	11 avril 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781406246988
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	6 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0312€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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T H E W E B O F L I F E

Adaptation and Survival

Robert Snedden

Raintree is an imprint of Capstone Global Library Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales having its registered office at 7 Pilgrim Street, London, EC4V 6LB – Registered company number: 6695582

Text © Capstone Global Library Limited 2012 First published in hardback in 2012 The moral rights of the proprietor have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (www.cla.co.uk). Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission should be addressed to the publisher.

Edited by Andrew Farrow, Adrian Vigliano, and Diyan Leake Designed by Victoria Allen Picture research by Elizabeth Alexander Illustrations by Oxford Designers & Illustrators Originated by Capstone Global Library Ltd Printed and bound in China by South China Printing Company Ltd

ISBN 978 1 406 23257 8 (hardback) 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataSnedden, Robert. Adaptation and survival. -- (The web of life) 578.4-dc22 A full catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Acknowledgements The author and publisher are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material: Alamy p. 35 (© GoSeeFoto); Dreamstime.com pp. 7 (© Nico Smit), 8 (© Outdoorsman), 22 (© Robert Venn); FLPA p. 23 (Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures); Getty Images p. 13 (Annie Griffiths Belt); iStockphoto pp. 29 (© MaXPdia), 38 (© ihoe); Nature Picture Library p. 26 (© Bence Mate); NHPA p. 40 (Dave Watts); Photolibrary pp. 9 (M. Varesvuo), 10 (Wayne Lynch), 11 (Doug Allan), 12 (Naftali Hilger), 14 (Arthur V Evans), 19 (M. Varesvuo), 20 (Kerstin Hinze), 21 (Alain Dragesco-Joffé), 25 (Fritz Poelking), 24 (François Gilson), 27 (Gerard Lacz), 30 (Richard Herrmann), 32 (Tim Zurowski), 41 (James Gerholdt); Shutterstock pp. 4 (© Gentoo Multimedia Ltd), 5 (© worldswildlifewonders), 6 (© Rido), 15 (© Zolran), 18 (© Maynard Case), 31 (© Studio 37), 33 (© Bobkeenan Photography), 36 (© Jon Naustdalslid), 39 (© Arto Hakola).

Cover photograph of common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) reproduced with permission of FLPA (© Jurgen & Christine Sohns).

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in subsequent printings if notice is given to the publisher.

Disclaimer All the internet addresses (URLs) given in this book were valid at the time of going to press. However, due to the dynamic nature of the internet, some addresses may have changed, or sites may have changed or ceased to exist since publication. While the author and publisher regret any inconvenience this may cause readers, no responsibility for any such changes can be accepted by either the author or the publisher.

Contents

Survival of the fittest ...................................................................4

Temperature control ....................................................................6

Case study: the camel ...............................................................12

Hibernation .................................................................................14

Case study: the Arctic ground squirrel ....................................16

Defence and attack ...................................................................18

On the move ................................................................................26

Senses ........................................................................................34

Timeline of prehistoric adaptations .........................................42

Glossary ......................................................................................44

Find out more .............................................................................46

Index ...........................................................................................48

Some words appear in the text in bold,like this. You can find out what they mean by looking in the glossary.

Survival of the fittest

Earth is a vast tapestry of differentenvironments. There are freezing polarregions, hot dry deserts, lush rainforests, chilly mountaintops, and windswept grasslands. The challenges for survival that each environment presents to the living things that inhabit them are many and varied – and the solutions are just as extraordinary. Thoseorganismsthat are best fitted to their environment are the most likely to survive – and to produce offspring that will survive, too.

Fit for life When scientists talk about the “fitness” of living things, they don’t meanstaminaor muscle power. What they mean is their ability to produce offspring successfully. The fittest organisms are not necessarily the biggest and strongest; they are the ones that fit best into their environment. Over time, only the organisms best suited, or adapted, to a particular environment will survive there. This is callednatural selection.

The emperor penguin and the quetzal (opposite) are adapted to life in very different environments. Neither bird would survive in the other’s habitat. The penguin’s thick layer of blubber would be ill-suited to the warm tropical forests where the quetzal is found, and the delicate quetzal could not survive the cold of Antarctica.

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