Patterns_of_Evolution

The question “are humans subject to the same pressures of natural selection as other organisms” is a matter of opinion. Humans can be, but not likely or to a degree is the answer that I keep reading from every text and website that I visit to find a definite answer. To my understanding this is an extremely complex question. The diseases within a human can be subject to natural selection. According to the Carter (1998) website, sickle-cell anemia and malaria are examples of natural selection. It states that the body will not stop making the genes even if the genetic code is wrong. This would be my example of how humans can be subject to pressures of natural selection. On the other hand, humans a whole can adapt and change their environment to make it livable; therefore humans are not subject to natural selection (Laden, 2011). The Patterns of Evolution website (n.d) states that adaptive radiation is an example of divergent evolution. Divergent evolution and adaptive radiation go hand and hand because divergent evolution is two or more related species becoming dissimilar. The red fox and kit fox is the specific example that it gave because the coat on the red fox helps it blend into trees of the farmlands that they live in; the kit fox has a sandy colored coat because it lives in the desert ("Patterns of Evolution", n.d). The two species become diverged as they adapt to their environment. In convergent evolution, two species unrelated become more similar. This website gave the example of cactuses. The American cactus resembles the euphorbia that grows in Africa; both have fleshy stems that store water and have arms with spines to protect them from predators ("Patterns of Evolution", n.d). Co-evolution is the joint change of two or more species in close interaction; predators and prey co-evolve ("Patterns of Evolution", n.d). The specific example that was given are bats visiting flowers to eat the nectar; a bat’s furry face will pick up the pollen in which the bat will transfer the pollen to the next flower it visits ("Patterns of Evolution", n.d). If humans continue to converge, for example two different ethnicities and races produce offspring, and then a whole other species will happen. This means that there will not be a more defined ethnicity or race. Every human will eventually have similar physical characteristics. References This is a hanging indent. To keep the hanging indent format, simply delete this line of text using the backspace key, and replace the information with your reference entry.