I NEED BIOLOGY HELP!!!!!!!?

Question

Why do scientists say that the environment "selects"the traits that allow an organism to survive and repproduce.

Please answer ASAP but only if you KNOW your Bio stuff

Answer 1

This is for Darwin's theory survival of the fittest. Not all the organisms will survive in the enviroment they live.

For example before a lot of years giraffes where short and trees where tall. Not all the giraffes could get feed because they could not reach the tree to eat so the shorter ones were dying . With many years of evolution giraffes are very tall animals so they can get their food easily.

Answer 2

It's just an expression.  The environment, for example, in Antarctica 'selects' for the success of penguins; while lions would die right away.

So - since the Antarctic 'selects' for fat fuzzy flightless water resistant swimming birds, the penguins survive and reproduce.

In the savahnas of Africa, the penguins wouldn't last a minute - and would be eaten by the lions.  But that's another thought experiment.

Keep studying science - It's the best hope for America and the world - George W. Bush hates science - He is the worst President in modern American history.

Answer 3

the environment is not really actively selecting the traits for the survival of the organisms. It is really saying that for a given environmental condition, only the organisms with the traits which allows them to survive and reproduce under the give condition, will survive.

For example, suppose there lives in lalaland a short and hairless speice of beers, with a few of them hairy and tall. Lalaland is fairly warm all year round, thus the hairless phenotype of the beer help them to survive the warm conditions by keeping them cool and maintaining their body temperature. In addition, these beers need apples to survie as their only food source. The apples grow on short trees, which the beers can easily reach.

But over a period of 100 years, the climate of Lalaland shift to being cold and the short apple trees on which the beers used to feed are now tall. Now, the hairless individualls in the beer polluation would not survive the cold climate, so only the hairy individuals survive and starts to breed among themselves. Clearly, only hairy individuals would be present. The short individuals can no longer reach the apples (their only food source) and give the competition within a poppulation for food the short beers eventually die out leaving only the taller ones, who have access to reach the apples on the tall trees. These tall individuall would survive and reproduce .

Here we see only the tall and hairy inividual being naturally selected to survive under these new environmental conditions. So this is what is meant when environmenatlists say that traits are selected by the environment.

Answer 4

It's all about survival of the fittest. An environment isn't right for every specimen. Some will do better than others, while some won't. You need certain attributes to survive.