There are two different hypothetical species of single-cell animals (ie, each an
ID: 49391 • Letter: T
Question
There are two different hypothetical species of single-cell animals (ie, each animal consists of only one cell) living in the same environment. They are identical except that the animals of one species are three times as big as the other. Suddenly their environment becomes dramatically worse: the nutrients that each species requires become far less abundant than before. Under this set of now-unfavorable conditions the number of animals in the smaller single-cell species remained constant for quite a while before the population began to decrease as the small-cell animals died from starvation. The larger single-cell animal species, however, started to disappear very soon after the change of environment and completely disappeared long before the smaller ones did. Why did the species of smaller cells survive longer than did the larger-cell species?
Explanation / Answer
In 1858, Charle Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection. According to them the species that are more likely to survive and produce progeny are the one with useful adaptations to the environment, whereas those with less useful adaptations will easily disappear/ extinct, thereby increasing the frequency with which useful adaptations occur over the generations. The limited resources available in an environment/ the harsh environmental condition promotes competition in which same species or different species - organisms struggle to survive. In the strident competition for space, food, and partners that occurs, the less well-adapted individuals (Species/organisms)( in the present case the larger-Cell species) must die or fail to reproduce, and those who are adapted better Survive and reproduce (in the present scenario: the smaller cells).
The Larger Cells require more nutrient from the environmentfor their survival where as the smaller cell's requirement for nutrient was fulfilled upto some extent but later on they to started decreasing but they survived more than the larger cells. Because of survival of fittest and natural selection.