Coevolution



Coevolution occurs when two or more species/organisms effect each others'

evolution. Coevolution is most likely to take place between different species that

come into contact with each other.

Some of these relationships include:

1. Predator/ prey and host/parasite

 2. Competitive species

3. Mutual species (2)

Each of these species exerts some sort of pressure on the other causing them to

evolve together(3).

 A predator/ prey example of coevolution is a spider and its prey the insect. The spider

feeds on the insects while the insect is eaten by the spider. Both of these organisms

evolve off of each other. The spider evolves by being able to capture and eat the

insect, while the insect evolves and the biggest and strongest survive passing on

their traits to their offspring.

media type="youtube" key="HY1kaHz3OA0" height="344" width="425" align="center"

(1). http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://biology.unm.edu/Biology/pwatson/public_html/swingdr.JPG&imgrefurl=http://biology.unm.edu/Biology/pwatson/public_html/abprg.htm&usg=___r6J_4hv4YbyVpVFpoZ_kGEgnvo=&h=346&w=528&sz=95&hl=en&start=7&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=_i2knHnMVbJ3zM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcoevolution%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26tbs%3Disch:1

(2). http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/IIIFCoevolution.shtml

(3). http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Courses/Bio303/coevolution.htm

(4). Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY1kaHz3OA0

Back to Patterns of Evolution