Name: Types of Speciation
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 6 min 35 s
Description: There are five types of speciation: allopatric, peripatric, parapatric, sympatric and artificial. Wanna learn more? Watch this informative video.

Question

What is adaptive radiation? Explain it with reference to Australian marsupials. Can this fauna indicate its parallel evolution with placental mammals? How do you explain their geographic distribution?

Accepted Answer

Adaptive radiation: The development of different functional structures from a common ancestral form is called adaptive radiations. Homologous organs show adaptive radiations. The process of evolution of different species in a given geographical area starting from a geographical area and literally radiating to other areas of geography (habitats) is called adaptive radiation. This type of evolution in which the organisms evolve from a single ancestral species and develop into many species is called divergent evolution.

Marsupials in Australia are adapted to particular food resources, locomotory skills, and climate. Despite geographical isolation, they have produced varieties of species in similar habitats with a similar way of life, The marsupials have undergone adaptive radiations to occupy the diverse habitats in Australia.

Placental mammals in Australia also exhibit adaptive radiation in evolving into varieties of such placental mammals each of which appears to be ‘similar’ to a corresponding marsupial. This type of evolution is called parallel evolution that refers to the development of similar characters in two dissimilar animal groups that have a common ancestry. The development of similar adaptive functional structures in unrelated groups of organisms is called adaptive convergence or convergent evolution shown by analogous organs.

What is adaptive radiation? Explain it with reference to Australian marsupials. Can this fauna indicate its parallel evolution with placental mammals? How do you explain their geographic distribution?

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