For this assignment, I wanted to examine a different species than I did in Assignment 6. So I chose the Mallard Duck which I have seen in Site Beta. Unfortunately, when I started to do research on this species I couldn't find much on it's evolutionary history. I figured squirrels have been around for a very long time (partly because of the movie Ice Age), so I went back to examining them.
Squirrels evolved originally from bacteria just like most species and plants. However, the first time something somewhat resembling what we know now as a squirrel was about 200 million years ago. Though these creatures were not officially squirrels they were what squirrels evolved from. The Eastern Grey Squirrel isn't the only species derived from the same family but species like chipmunks, marmots and prairie dogs also come from the same evolutionary line. Red squirrels used to be a lot more common in our area of the world than they are now. This is due to group selection. I mentioned it in my previous assignment but Red Squirrels are more susceptible to disease and also to hunting so they no longer are as common as the Eastern Grey Squirrel. The video inserted above goes through the evolution of squirrels and related species.
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AuthorSophomore Intro to Biology student at Lesley University Archives
May 2017
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