6. If the ancestral form for a particular lineage was aquatic and used gills for respiration, what changes would you expect to see in a terrestrial descendant?

Respuesta :

Answer:

  1. They now had lungs to support the function of extracting the right amount of oxygen,O₂ from the free air as there is an abundance of oxygen in the atomic form inside the atmosphere.
  2. The organisms required hind and fore limbs for the process of locomotion, how ever some of them crawl over the land for movement.
  3. A more hard and brittle form of covering or skin was formed by the organisms to save themselves from too much heat and other factors.

Explanation:

  • There are a number of living beings which have evolved from the aquatic form of life. Mainly, the reptiles and some of the amphibians are termed to have evolved from the aquatic form of life, as they developed there characteristic to cope with the factors that were being faced on lands. Many of the living being which were once fish now had the lungs to extract the right amount of oxygen, O₂ from the free air. As gills were not suitable for the organisms to have in order to have a life on land and thus they were termed as terrestrial organisms.

Among the many different changes that animals suffered during their pass from water to the ground, we can mention lungs development, tegumentary cover changes, limbs development, and internal fertilization.

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Any change to a new environment needs adaptations.

Aquatic animals had to face many changes in their morphology and physiology when changing to terrestrial habits.

Some of those are,

  • Lungs developments

The most significant change is probably lungs development, needed to produce gas interchange between tissues and the air.

Once on the ground, animals need to interchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with air. They managed to do so through the respiration process, in which the circulatory and respiratory systems work together.

  • Tegumentary cover

Animals needed to develop a new thicker and harder tegumentary cover.

It needed to be more resistant, especially to avoid or to reduce dehydration.

Also to provide protection when facing new environmental pressures -predation among them-.

  • Limbs development

Another significant change was limbs development, which was obviously needed to move on the ground.

Locomotion on the ground required not only a new pattern of bones arrangement but also many muscle changes.

The musculature system suffered many modifications because animals needed to move facing gravity pressure.

  • Internal fertilization

Animals needed to face another change related to their reproductive system.

They could no longer make use of external fertilization, as they used to do in aquatic environments.

They developed reproductive organs needed to insert sperm cells into the female body and fertilize the egg cells inside the females.

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