Variations and Adaptations in Animals and Plants 731 

 QUESTIONS AND TOPICS 



1. Define variations and give examples you have observed. 



2. List and discuss the values of variations in Nature. What would happen in the 

 living world if nothing changed ? 



3. Classify variations in several different ways with examples of each type. 



4. Discuss each of the various causes of variations. 



5. Discuss the results of variations in the plant and animal worlds. 



6. What do the various fossils of such animals as the horse found in successive 

 periods in the earth's strata prove ? 



7. How might mutations explain the origin of certain new species or types of 

 plants or animals ? 



8. Explain the statement that "mutations are the hope and the despair of plant 

 and animal breeders." 



9. Describe specifically how you might produce variations in certain plants and 

 animals. 



10. What is the relationship between variations of the inheritable type and descent 

 with change (evolution) ? 



11. Define adaptations and give examples you have observed. 



12. Contrast divergence (adaptive radiation) and convergence (parallelism), 

 giving examples of each. 



13. Discuss coloration as to causes and the uses to which it may be put, including 

 examples of each type of coloration. 



14. Explain protective resemblance, giving examples which you may have ob- 

 served. 



15. Explain seasonal coloration, including some examples you may have observed. 



SELECTED REFERENCES 



Allee: Animal Aggregations, University of Chicago Press. 



Allee et al.: Principles of Animal Ecology, W. B. Saunders Co. 



Child: Individuality in Organisms, University of Chicago Press. 



Cott: Adaptive Coloration in Animals, Oxford University Press. 



Daubenmire: Plants and Environment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 



Oosting: The Study of Plant Communities, W. H. Freeman & Co. 



Sears: Life and Environment, Columbia University Press. 



Thayer: Concealing Coloration in the Animal Kingdom, The Macmillan Co. 



