Part C - How might natural selection and character displacement explain evolutio

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Part C - How might natural selection and character displacement explain evolution in Plethodon salamanders?

Make Connections: Character Displacement and Modes of Selection Part C-How might natural selection and character displacement explain evolution in Plethodon manders? C. Adams and F J Rohilf observed character displacement in two species of salamanders on the east coast of he United States-Ple appear below thodon cinereus and Plethodon hoffmani. Their data on body size in the two species allopatric populations sympatric populations 50 40- 3? 20 10 P, cinereus P. hoffmani P. cinereus P. hoffmani Soarces Adams D dF. 1. Rohit 2000 tgcal chaw acter displacement in Proc Nat Acad Sci 97 4108 411 Losos, J. 6 2000 Ecological charate disaceiet and the study of adaptation P Acad Sc) 97 5693 5695 Drag the labels to their appropriate locations in the table to describe natural selection due to interspecific ompetition in each population. Labels may be used once, more than once, or not at all.

Explanation / Answer

P. cinereus and P. Hoffmani are two related species that belong to sympatric species. These species are living together in the same island. These two species have same type of eating habits but as both species have to survive in the island both have developed the way where both have undergone anatomical changes so that they both have change their eating habits so that both can survive.  

Now the change they undergone as a natural selection and character displacement is:

P. cinereus have developed a slower jaw but at the same time have more powerful jaw whereas P. hoffmani have developed a faster but weaker jaw. Hence, by this change P. cinereus was able to eat smaller prey and P. cinereus was able to eat larger prey.  

Larger prey are immobilized with the help of fast closure of the jaw and smaller prey are immobilized with the help of pressure created by the tounge and palatal teeth.  

Hence, in this way both type of salamanders have undergone change in their anatomy, so that they have different structures of jaw that is responsible for eating different type of prey.

This is an example of both character displacement and natural selection, where by changing their characters they are able to survive and both are selected by the nature because there was no competition between the two species .

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