Evolution: The Most Common Cause Of Mass Extinction

Over the past few weeks, I have been studying evolution. I have learned that the earth has changed a lot overtime and our ancestry has changed as well. Evolution is a well-supported explanation for how life has changed overtime because things like mass extinction and natural selection have caused speciation which leads to new species and changes through life on Earth. Rule #5 states, “The most common cause of mass extinctions on earth is climate change. This affects species by limiting their resources and changing what traits are advantageous.” A mass extinction is when the majority of a species is wiped out. Advantageous traits are traits that benefit the individual. According to a video we watched, the third mass extinction was caused due to changes in climate because of

Individuals with the most advantageous traits are most likely to survive and reproduce.” Microevolution is the evolution of individual populations overtime and macroevolution is the evolution of all populations of earth or multiple populations. An example of this rule is from the class lesson about speciation. Some types we learned about were mechanical isolation and behavioral isolation. Mechanical isolation is caused due to reproductive organ compatibility and behavioral isolation is due to mating preferences. An example of mechanical isolation is Damsel fly penises. Damsel flies don’t all that the same DNA causing their reproductive organisms to come in different shapes and sizes meaning that not all Damsel flie have organs compatible for females they need to mate with. An example of behavioral isolation is the brightness of fireflies. Female fireflies loves bright lights causing the males with less bright lights to not get picked to reproduce. These examples show that natural selection causes evolution because overtime, traits become more