Meriton Ruhani. Bio. April 3, 2017. Evolutionary Success.

According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.

Animals fight for survival daily, and sometimes their lives depend on their ability to adapt with their surrounding environments. Natural Selection is the process in which individuals have certain traits that allow

Basically speaking, an earthworm has two muscles, circular and longitudinal, that allow for locomotion with the muscular system. They run throughout their entire bodies and also help with contraction.

Soil organisms provide ecosystem services such as maintaining soil fertility and preventing soil erosion. Water, wind, ice, and other agents cause soil erosion, the wearing away or removal of soil from the land. Soil erosion reduces fertility because essential minerals and organic matter are removed. Erosion causes sediments and pesticide and fertilizer residues to pollute nearby waterways ( Wiley, 2009).

When society thinks about crayfish and earthworms they become extremely curious about how their bodies operate because of how they are made up. I will give a brief synopsis of both animals before going into major detail about them. According to the online website named dictionary.com, it says that an earthworm is a burrowing annelid worm that lives in the soil. Earthworms play an important role in aerating and draining the soil and in burying organic matter (Dictionary). Crayfish are nocturnal freshwater crustacean that resembles a small lobster and inhabits in streams and rivers (Dictionary). Crayfish and earthworms are some very interesting animals that possess some exclusive qualities both similar and different.

Soil turnover - as soil is moved around by digging animals, organic matter is mixed through which distributes nutrients throughout the soil

“ Without soil, land plants as we know them could not grow, and without plants no animals could survive”(53). This quote shows the great importance of one of our most important resources soil. “Perhaps the most important organisms in the soil, are the smallest-the invisible hosts of bacteria and threadlike fungi”(54). And, this quote shows how important the small organisms are. These include bacteria, fungi, and insects, which play such are large roll in life and are commonly being overlooked. One way they are being overlooked is by having chemicals sprayed on them and no one wonders what will happen. Well, if you are spraying chemicals to kill insects, it is most definite that the insects, such as earthworms, are going to be killed as well. These organisms are what make our soil so fertile, and without them we won’t be able to grow as much food. That being said, if we continue to plague the organisms of the soil with chemicals eventually, we will have less soil. We will no longer be able to grow as much crop due to this and we will not sustain the same lifestyle that we had

Earthworm: In our dissection of the earth worm we found they belong to a group of animals called annelids. Its body is segmented into several parts, except for the head and tail regions. Its diet is of decomposed plants and other small particles in the

“If no such variations exist, the population rapidly goes extinct because it cannot adapt to a changing environment” (O’Neil, 1998-2013). Scientists call this reproductive success. “Within a specific environment context, one genotype will be better than another genotype in survival or reproduction for certain reasons having to do with the way its particular features relate to the environment or relate to other organisms within the population” (Futuyma, 2000-2014). The theory of evolution is explicable through various kinds of scientific research.

The diversity of soil invertebrates is very important to our ecosystem, because most soil invertebrates are responsible for key soil processes such as nutrient recycling, nutrient retention, formation of soil structure, and decomposition rates. Invertebrates are one of the most dominant groups of animals in the world. Recent studies show that animals may constitute as much as 23% of the total diversity of living organisms (Lavelle et al., 2006).

At the age of 11, my family and I visited The Museum of Natural History in New

There are many definitions of what constitutes an adaptation and a great debate amongst many famous biologists and philosophers, each championing their own definition of adaptation. Historical definitions include the ‘design’ oriented approach of Williams, who claims

Earthworms breathe though out their skin and do not have lungs. To breathe, oxygen and carbon dioxide pass through the worm’s skin by diffusion. For diffusion to happen the worm must keep its skin moist and live in moist soil. Worms have the ability to detect light even though they

For the most part, generalist species is able to survive in wide environmental conditions and

evolution of the species, what adaptive property it provides that would cause it to be selected