EVOLUTION
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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organisms that survive mass extinctions evolve more rapidly because they face limited competition.
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organisms evolve slowly after mass extinctions
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organisms do not evolve after mass extinctions
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evolutionary change occurs slowly after mass extinctions because a large number of species have become extinct over a relatively short time.
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Detailed explanation-1: -By removing so many species from their ecosystems in a short period of time, mass extinctions reduce competition for resources and leave behind many vacant niches, which surviving lineages can evolve into.
Detailed explanation-2: -Mass extinctions affect the history of life by decimating existing diversity and ecological structure and creating new evolutionary and ecological pathways. Both the loss of diversity during these events and the rebound in diversity following extinction had a profound effect on Phanerozoic evolutionary trends.
Detailed explanation-3: -Although a mass extinction ended the dinosaurs, they only evolved in the first place because of mass extinction. Despite this chaos, life slowly diversified over the past 500m years. In fact, several things hint that extinction drives this increased diversity.
Detailed explanation-4: -Following a mass extinction, biodiversity is greatly decreased, and it stays low during a “survival interval” before beginning to climb again. While some of the species that reappear after an extinction are new, others are pre-existing.
Detailed explanation-5: -A mass extinction is a short period of geological time in which a high percentage of biodiversity, or distinct species-bacteria, fungi, plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates-dies out.