How Is An Ecomorph Different From A Species

Question: At the beginning of the virtual lab, you were asked to sort eight lizards into categories. What

criteria did you initially use to make your groups? Did you revise your criteria later? Why?

Answer: I based my criteria on the size of the anoles’ legs. I did not revise my criteria later. I chose the size of the anoles’ legs because I believe that each of the different anoles had evolved based on their habitat, and I wanted to base my experiment on that.

Question: An adaptation is a structure or function that is common in a population because it enhances the

ability to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. Provide one example and an

explanation of one adaptation in the Anolis lizards.

Answer: One adaptation is the short legs on the sheplani hispaniola anolis lizard. This is most likely due to the slim branch it lives on. The short legs make the lizard able to hold onto the branch/twig better and survive longer because it does not fall off.

Question: Provide one evolutionary explanation for why lizards living in the same part of the habitat (i.e.,

grass) would have similar characteristics.

Answer:

Question: What is an ecomorph? Provide one example from the virtual lab.

Answer: Ecomorphs are species with similar body types and habitats. “eco” stands for ecological niche and “morph” for morphology, or shape. An example is how the sheplani Hispaniola and occultus Puerto Rico lizards both have short legs, but with slight

Question: How is an ecomorph different from a species?

Answer: An ecomorph is different from a species because it only classifies the organism as having similar body types and habitats, however species have other different characteristics such as color or look.

Question: Explain how a particular body feature of one of the lizard ecomorphs from the virtual lab is an

adaptation to their particular niche.

Answer: One of the lizard ecomorphs, the occultus Puerto Rico anole has short legs because it needs to be able to stick to/crawl on slim twigs in their habitat.

Question: In module 1, you identified which species of lizards were most similar to one another based on

relative limb length and toe pad size. In this module, you determined which lizards are more

similar to one another based on what type of information?

Answer: I determined which lizards are more similar based on DNA sequence analysis.

Question: Are the species of lizard that are more similar to one another according to body type also more

closely related based on the results obtained in this module?

Answer: t are similar according to body type are not more closely related based on the results obtained from the DNA sequence analysis. This is because similar body types are farther away from each other on the phylogeny tree.

Question: What conclusion can you draw about the evolution of the Anolis lizards based on these figures?

Answer: The conclusion I can draw about the evolution of the Anolis lizards is based on ecological niches on an island rather than the entire island itself. Two anoles on different islands can have similar traits as long as their ecological niches are similar.

Question: What is convergent evolution? Use evidence from the trees to explain how the Anolis lizards are

an example of this concept.

Answer: