{"id":378,"date":"2024-04-12T14:51:11","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T14:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/?p=378"},"modified":"2024-07-20T11:08:33","modified_gmt":"2024-07-20T11:08:33","slug":"diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/12\/diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Despite the basic biological, chemical, and physical similarities found in all living things, a\u00a0diversity\u00a0of life exists not only among and between\u00a0species\u00a0but also within every natural\u00a0population. The phenomenon of diversity has had a long history of study because so many of the variations that exist in nature are visible to the eye. The fact that organisms changed during prehistoric times and that new variations are constantly evolving can be verified by paleontological records as well as by breeding experiments in the laboratory. Long after Darwin assumed that variations existed, biologists discovered that they are caused by a change in the genetic material (DNA). That change can be a slight alteration in the sequence of the\u00a0constituents\u00a0of DNA (nucleotides), a larger change such as a structural alteration of a\u00a0chromosome, or a complete change in the number of chromosomes. In any case, a change in the genetic material in the reproductive cells\u00a0manifests\u00a0itself as some kind of structural or chemical change in the offspring. The consequence of such a\u00a0mutation\u00a0depends  upon the interaction of the mutant offspring with its\u00a0environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It has been suggested that\u00a0sexual reproduction\u00a0became the dominant type of\u00a0reproduction\u00a0among organisms because of its\u00a0inherent\u00a0advantage of variability, which is the\u00a0mechanism\u00a0that enables a species to adjust to changing conditions. New variations are potentially present in genetic differences, but how preponderant a variation becomes in a\u00a0gene pool\u00a0depends upon the number of offspring the mutants or variants produce (differential reproduction). It is possible for a genetic novelty (new variation) to spread in time to all members of a population, especially if the novelty\u00a0enhances\u00a0the population\u2019s chances for survival in the\u00a0environment\u00a0in which it exists. Thus, when a species is introduced into a new\u00a0habitat, it either adapts to the change by natural selection or by some other evolutionary mechanism or eventually dies off. Because each new habitat means new\u00a0adaptations, habitat changes have been responsible for the millions of different kinds of\u00a0species\u00a0and for the heterogeneity within each species.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The total number of\u00a0extant\u00a0animal\u00a0and\u00a0plant\u00a0species is estimated at between roughly 5 million and 10 million; about 1.5 million of those species have been described by scientists. The use of\u00a0classification\u00a0as a means of producing some kind of order out of the staggering number of different types of organisms appeared as early as the book of\u00a0Genesis\u2014with references to cattle, beasts, fowl, creeping things, trees, and so on. The first scientific attempt at classification, however, is attributed to the Greek philosopher\u00a0Aristotle, who tried to establish a system that would indicate the relationship of all things to each other. He arranged everything along a scale, or \u201cladder of nature,\u201d with nonliving things at the bottom; plants were placed below animals, and humankind was at the top. Other schemes that have been used for grouping species include large anatomical similarities, such as wings or fins, which indicate a natural relationship, and also similarities in reproductive structures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Despite the basic biological, chemical, and physical similarities found in all living things, a\u00a0diversity\u00a0of life exists not only among and between\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/science\/species-taxon\">species<\/a>\u00a0but also within every natural\u00a0population. The phenomenon of diversity has had a long history of study because so many of the variations that exist in nature are visible to the eye. The fact that organisms changed during prehistoric times and that new variations are constantly evolving can be verified by paleontological records as well as by breeding experiments in the laboratory. Long after Darwin assumed that variations existed, biologists discovered that they are caused by a change in the genetic material (DNA). That change can be a slight alteration in the sequence of the\u00a0constituents\u00a0of DNA (nucleotides), a larger change such as a structural alteration of a\u00a0chromosome, or a complete change in the number of chromosomes. In any case, a change in the genetic material in the reproductive cells\u00a0manifests\u00a0itself as some kind of structural or chemical change in the offspring. The consequence of such a\u00a0mutation\u00a0depends upon the interaction of the mutant offspring with its\u00a0environment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It has been suggested that\u00a0sexual reproduction\u00a0became the dominant type of\u00a0reproduction\u00a0among organisms because of its\u00a0inherent\u00a0advantage of variability, which is the\u00a0mechanism\u00a0that enables a species to adjust to changing conditions. New variations are potentially present in genetic differences, but how preponderant a variation becomes in a\u00a0gene pool\u00a0depends upon the number of offspring the mutants or variants produce (differential reproduction). It is possible for a genetic novelty (new variation) to spread in time to all members of a population, especially if the novelty\u00a0enhances\u00a0the population\u2019s chances for survival in the\u00a0environment\u00a0in which it exists. Thus, when a species is introduced into a new\u00a0habitat, it either adapts to the change by natural selection or by some other evolutionary mechanism or eventually dies off. Because each new habitat means new\u00a0adaptations, habitat changes have been responsible for the millions of different kinds of\u00a0species\u00a0and for the heterogeneity within each species.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The total number of\u00a0extant\u00a0animal\u00a0and\u00a0plant\u00a0species is estimated at between roughly 5 million and 10 million; about 1.5 million of those species have been described by scientists. The use of\u00a0classification\u00a0as a means of producing some kind of order out of the staggering number of different types of organisms appeared as early as the book of\u00a0Genesis with references to cattle, beasts, fowl, creeping things, trees, and so on. The first scientific attempt at classification, however, is attributed to the Greek philosopher\u00a0Aristotle, who tried to establish a system that would indicate the relationship of all things to each other. He arranged everything along a scale, or \u201cladder of nature,\u201d with nonliving things at the bottom; plants were placed below animals, and humankind was at the top. Other schemes that have been used for grouping species include large anatomical similarities, such as wings or fins, which indicate a natural relationship, and also similarities in reproductive structures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concepts-of-biology-start-from-basic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/4-2.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workhouse.sweetdishy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}