During mating, a male redback spider somersaults to dangle in front of the femal

Question

During mating, a male redback spider somersaults to dangle in front of the female's jaws, allowing her to devour him. Propose two possible explanations for this male behavior. One explanation should deal with ultimate causation; the other explanation should deal with proximate causation. Which came first in hominid evolution, bipedalism or increased brain size? Justify your answer, with reference to specific hominid species. Describe, with an example, one of the ways in which the human species threatens the Earth's biodiversity. Explain the concept of stabilizing selection, with an example.

Explanation / Answer

Question two: Bipedalism came before increased brain size. Why? The kneejoints of older austraolpithecus are larger than thier primordialancestors. Also, it would have been evolutionarily advantageous todevelop walking before a large brain: you could see your preybetter over longer distances, you could hunt prey over longerdistances because of the formation of longer legs and the freedomof your hands to grasp. Stabalizing selection favor intermediate phenotypes. Humanbabies are a good example. If the baby is born underweight, it willmost likely die if not in a hospital setting. If a baby is bornoverweight, then there are complications for birth and the mothermight die; the baby might show signs of other problems as well suchas diabetes or poor circulation; also, these babies are ususallyvoracious eaters. A normal weight baby will most likely increaseboth the mothers chances of survival and that of its own. Constant pollution in the ocean decreases earths biodiversity.This sediment and excrement can form a layer on the surface of thewater and block rays of light from coming into the ocean, thereforepreventting photosynthesis to occur in plants. If photosynthesisdoes not occurr in plants, then smaller creatures cannot feed onthe plants and will starve. Likewise, the next highest members ofthe food chain would also starve because thier prey is notavailable. I will get back to you on the first one, have to think aboutit....

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