BIOL 180 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Cambrian Explosion, Adaptive Radiation, Nuclear Winter
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Adaptive radiations = the rapid diversification of a single lineage into an array of species that fill a wide variety of ecological niches: *rapid, array, and wide variety are relative terms. Niche = the range of habitats of resources used by a species. Think of wings of flies or beaks of birds. Stronger beak: this bird probably eats nuts or seeds. Longer/curved beak: skinny to reach into crevices and get bugs/larvae. Adaptive radiations are a major pattern in the history of life. **ecological opportunity and trait innovation can occur together, as may have occurred during the cambrian explosion. The cambrian explosion: almost all life-forms were unicellular for almost 3 billion years after the origin of life, life-forms became much larger and more complex, this is adaptive radiation of animals occurred during the beginning of the. What triggered this explosion: higher oxygen levels, evolution of predation, new niches beget more new niches, new genes, new bodies.
