BIO 1130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Burying Beetle, Commensalism, Parasitism

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Biology
• Course: BIO 1130
• Professor: Jon Houseman

Document Summary

Adaptations are the result of natural selection. They are sometimes complex, have complex functions and a complex history. Morphological changes are often associated with changes in developmental genes. Changes in developmental genes can lead to adaptations. Closest living relative to humans is chimp species. Chimps have long snout, while humans have a very flat face. Chimps have much larger tongues and mouths than humans. In chimps, there is contact between epiglottis and soft palate passage of food automatically closes trachea. In general, other animals do not choke on their food. The reason there is this difference between the positioning of the epiglottis/soft pallate in humans vs chimps is because of the human adaptation that allows speech. Chimps have long horizontal tube and short vertical tube. Humans have short horizontal tube and long vertical tube; larger open space: allows humans to adjust the size of each tube to accurately pronounce sounds for communication.