Anurag Polkampally

Theme 1, Assignment 2
1. Wills makes use of many great analogies when describing diversity on Earth. What is
your favorite quote? What point is he trying to make in the statement you chose?
My favorite quote from the reading was when Wills talked about sharing a
common backbone with other animals, and how just looking at one similar
characteristic can branch off and show the relations between many species. Although
Wills may have meant backbone in the literal sense in this quote, the way I perceived it
was that all organisms share some sort of commonality with one and other, as small or
insignificant as it may seem. By finding a commonality between two species, we can
slowly branch out from there and find more and more species that we are actually
related to. In this statement, I feel like Wills is trying to describe this backbone, not
necessarily just a spine, that species share with one another, how all species came from a
common ancestor and how connected all organisms really are.
2. When studying diversity on Earth, why is it important to consider shared common
ancestry?
It is important to consider common ancestry to understand what so many similar
organisms/species deviated from. For example, the many variety of shrimp that lived in
the environment described by Wills showed how at one point all the species of shrimp
once shared a common ancestor, but to better suit the environment multiple species
evolved from the core. The boxer shrimp has evolved in a way to better survive in a
tough environment from a physical standpoint, literally being able to fight off its
predators; meanwhile anemone shrimp has evolved for a better flight instinct, being
invisible from its predators, to avoid detection and to have a better chance at reproducing.
The common ancestor gives an idea of a starting point where all of these species started
from, and shows what evolutionary traits these species needed to better survive.
3. What is convergent evolution? Provide one example of evolutionary convergence that
Wills discusses and explain how this is an example of evolutionary convergence.
Convergent evolution is the development of similar features or characteristics in
species that come fro different evolutionary lineages. One example discussed of this
reading was Wills description of the eyes of the human and those of the cuttlefish. Even
though humans and cuttlefish diverged, in terms of evolutionary changes, long back, the
two species had a similar adaptation when it comes to their eyesight. The relatively
similar structure and developmental process of the eyes show a converging evolution, the
need for stronger eyes to survive in their environment.