Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Land Tortoises
• Darwin Finches
• Blue-Footed Booby
• Marine Iguanas
DARWIN’S OBSERVATIONS DURING THE TRIP
Overproduction.
• Species have the ability to produce a large ability to produce a large number of offspring,
much more than can survive. According to him, organisms reproduce to excess.
• All species have a tendency and the potential to increase at a geometric rate.
• Species populations remain more or less constant (“stable”) because a small fraction of
offspring live long enough to reproduce.
• Most species produce far more offspring than are needed to maintain the population.
Example:
• Fish lay millions of eggs at a
time.
• Sea turtles: Lay from eggs
(depending on the species. On
average, 1 out of 100 survive to
be a full grown turtle.
COMPETITION
• Living space and food are limited, so offspring from each
generation must compete among themselves in order to live.
• Only a small fraction can possibly survive long enough to
reproduce.
• Due to overproduction, organisms of the same species, as well
as organisms of different species must compete for survival
needs such as food, water, mates and a place to live.
• INTERspecific competition -
Competition between 2 different
species.
(Ex. Cheetahs and Lions)
• INTRAspecific competition –
Competition between 2 of the
same species.
• (Ex. 2 male deer fight over 1
female deer).
NATURAL SELECTION
• An adaptation is an inherited
trait that increases an
organisms’ chance of survival
and reproduction in a given
environment.
SPECIATION