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By taking an example of some of Australian marsupials and Australian placental mammals, briefly explain the phenomenon of adaptive radiation and convergent evolution in different species. |
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Answer» Adaptive radiation is known as the process of evolution of different species in a given geographical area starting from a point and literally radiating to the other areas of the habitat. For example, many Australian marsupials, different from each other, such as kangaroo, sugar glider, etc had evolved from a common ancestral stock, but all within the Australian continent. Thus, when more than one adaptive radiation occur in an isolated geographical area, Convergent evolution is said to occur. Likewise Australian placental mammals also shows adaptive radiation in evolving into varieties of such placental mammals. Each one of these appear similar to the corresponding marsupial, e.g. placental wolf and Tasmanian wolf, anteater and numbat, etc. |
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