Evolution of Australian Biota Essay Example for Free

Evolution of Australian Biota EssayIdentify features of unfolds of native species of angiosperms that may be suitations for wind, insect, bird and mammal pollination. Wind Wind-pollinated plants wearyt depend on the ability to eviscerate birds or insects, so their flowers lead to be small, drab, unscented and non-prominent. Wind pollinated flowers are specially adapted to be able to make use of eveninging slight air currents. They tend to have lots of small flowers with long filaments and pistils. Anthers and stigmata often project from the flower in order to be exposed to the wind so that pollen can be sent step forward and received easily. Insect Flowers use nectar as a food showtime for insects to encourage them to abide by returning to the plant. They have developed structures that secrete nectar and these structures are surrounded by petals that have pollen on them. As the insect eats or collects the nectar, it picks up pollen on its body which will then be transp orted to other flowers. Many plants have also developed brightly colored or dull flowers to attract insects. Scent also plays a role in attracting insects, Bees and moths like flowers with a sweet scent. Some plants even have a rotten smell to attract insects such as flies and beetles. snort Bird pollinated flowers tend to be very bright to attract the bird towards them. They produce very sticky pollen so that it clings to bird easier, they also produce lots of nectar to feed the birds. This is an example of a mutualism family because they both benefit from it. Mammal The nectar feeding bats is one of the only mammal species that principally feed on flowers. These flowers dont usually have bright colours because bats dont have good eyesight, but these flowers have a very rich scent in order for the bat to come to them. Because most mammals are larger than birds they require larger amounts of nectar which go in larger flowers. The pollen is also very sticky so that it can attach to the mammal easier so that the mammal can transport the pollen to other flowers.Evolution Charles Darwins theory was that species change over time, or evolve, in response to their environment. A good example of this is the evolution of the Kangaroo. Approximately 55 MYA the kangaroos looked quite interchangeable to a possum and it was a tree dweller with a prehensile tail, but as Gondwana split up, the rainforests disappeared, the climate became hotter and the land dry and arid, the kangaroo evolved along the way and have come to look like what they do now. Survival Some species have higher survival rates than others because they are more adaptable to new-sprung(prenominal) conditions and arent a completely specialized species like the Koala.For example the platypus has survived over millions of years because it has learnt to adapt to its changing environment rather than dying off because it cant cope with environmental change. extinction Most species become extinct because th ey cant cope with the environmental change, and also because of introduced species that turned into competitors for dominion and food. E.g. the Thylacine or better known as the Tasmanian Tiger started to die off ascribable to competition of introduced species, mainly the Dingo. As the Dingoes numbers increased the Thylacines decreased because the Dingoes were hunting the Thylacines source of food and was taking over their territories.Discuss one reason for maintaining biodiversity.Biodiversity should be maintained because we need a variety of species within an ecosystem, and a variety within the one species because everything depends on each other for survival. As humans we depend on plants and animals as our source of food and if unsoundness struck a position breed of cow and that was the only breed of cow in the world, we would no longer have cunt meat or dairy products, and that is where biodiversity would have helped. If there were other different breeds of cows that were a vailable that the disease didnt effect they would still have their meat and dairy products. So it is important to maintain biodiversity because if we didnt our food and sources of survival would be vary scarce.Describe two ways in which the government is compound in monitoring biodiversity.One way is that the Smithsonian National Zoology Park has been pairing up with schools Students, teachers and confederation partners to experience their topical anaesthetic environment first-hand, and become involved in projects that allow them to conduct surveys in their local ecosystem on the biodiversity of biota that surrounds them. A second way is the catch, tag and release method that most angle departments have been adopting, like the NSW fisheries department where that have been tagging grey nurse sharks and asking for sightings of the sharks to be reported so that they can accumulate information on the population size and movement patterns of the sharks.