Introduction
Biodiversity is a form of study that deals with the naming and grouping of all living organisms. As Huh put it, this is the degree of difference of life forms within a certain inhabitant and the whole of the earth (244). It simplifies the means by which we group animals and also provides a greater understanding of the living creatures. Scientists decided to get into this project and invented a great time in research, attempting to ensure that every human being is interested in the life of other creatures not only because of how they are important to them but also because every creature is special and wonderfully created. This essay entirely engages the questions of the origin and evolution of adaptation, and much of it will give you the basic knowledge that is required to understand the topic.
The topic is thoroughly researched and provides all necessary required information which makes a starter student of biology find it interesting and, even if possible, pursue it as his/her career life. If you know that you like to be equipped and informed with facts in the biological grouping of organisms, it’s highly recommended to keenly read through this article, and at the end of it, it will have answered your immediate questions.
Origin of Biological diversity
Biology is a branch of science that is concerned with the study of living things. It explicates and explains the adaptation of organisms to their surroundings and elaborates on the diversity of life on earth; also, in this topic, we are going to study the origin and evolution of the adoption. The evolution of adaptations to local circumstances leads to the creation of new species hence an increase in the diversity of life on the earth.
Origin of Life
There exist different theories that attempt to explain the origin of the earth; one of them is creation theory which argues that the earth was created by a supernatural being, God, the other one is that life was brought about by aliens to the earth, this is a scientific theory and the other scientific theory argues that life arose somewhere in the universe and by use of comets and meteors it was brought to the earth. Lastly, another argument says that life was a result of chemical reactions in the ancient seas in the existence of the ancient atmosphere. However, even though many individuals think that science is unable to address the concept regarding the origin of life, scientists, especially biologists, in collaboration with others in different fields, endeavored to get the world community from entanglements of confusion through the employment of genetics and molecular biological techniques, which are part of recent and modern technologies. For this kind of approach and reasoning, scientists have convinced the world to a certain degree of the dynamic of life that may occur in living organisms leading to the production of unique and different creatures, hence resulting in the existence of a new generation. It is believed that all life arose from one common background/ancestor and later multiplied and started competing for survival forming spontaneous generations of life, leaving no progeny. The study of the origin of life is the most lively and interesting area in biology, and this might be because of the earlier definitions of biology being the study of living things. Their number of hypotheses used to explain the origin of life includes RNA First, protein First, RNA-Protein First, and bubble First.
RNA First
This is a molecule that can be simulated and hence can serve as the original hereditary material. It’s also proficient in catalytic activities between other molecules, and it also duplicates itself. This aspect makes RNA the best initial molecule of life. For the evolution of life to take place, there were some reactions that were to take place; hence, some cell membranes were necessary. The early cells which fight each other through chemical evolution became more stable and are capable of receiving energy from the environment and managed to divide into two daughter cells through chemical evolution, which later twisted to biological evolution. (Fedra. 653)
Directionality of evolution
Evolution is being taken into two directions, first is the perfection misconception, which argues that evolution favors individuals who are to some extent good optimized to current local situations than other individuals originating from the same species. In this misconception, what wins is relative fitness rather than absolute fitness. The second direction is the tendency to produce greater complexity. As life progressed, evolution became more complex, making organisms to be highly smuggled. In this direction, it’s argued that the more the organism’s population evolved, the more members of the population are equally become simpler. In this case, simplification is as frequently seen in evolution as in the attainment of greater complexity (Huh 245).
Measuring Diversity
In today’s world, living things are being classified by the human being by the way they behave, how they look, their inhabitants, their significance to man. All these are man-made criteria for grouping living organisms. It’s good to understand that all living organisms are genealogically related to each other, and whenever undertaking classification, they should be grouped according to their degree of relatedness through illustrating using a family tree of life. (Fedra 710). In the beginning, classification was being done according to the anatomy and embryology of organisms. This mode of classification sub-divided the division of life into six major kingdoms, namely; bacteria, archaea, protists, plants, fungi, and animals. The first two kingdoms are Prokaryotes meaning cells without a nucleus, and the other kingdoms were Eukaryotes, and their cells had nuclei (Huh 245).
The kingdoms were later subdivided into nested hierarchies: each kingdom being composed of a number of Phyla . Then phylum consists of classes made of orders and is further subdivided into families. The subdivision was also downsized to a smaller unit of a family known as Genera, and each Genus is made of the closest species. The appropriate name of each living organism on earth is its binomial Latin name: – capitalized name of the Genus while lower case represents the name of the species and both are italicized. E.g., Homo sapiens (human)
As we live in the post-modern era, the scientist has developed a new molecular genetic technique used in testing the relationship between species, resulting in many improvements in classification at lower levels of systems such as species, genus, family, etc. This invention has resulted to some big changes in the classification mode of living organisms. Rather than six kingdoms, life is currently being divided into three domains: Bacteria, Archaea, and finally, Eukaryotes.
After studying this topic, we acknowledge that were are now aware of endosymbiosis, which is intercellular parasites, initially small bacterial cells entering and living inside larger cells in living organisms. Endosymbiosis gave rise to organelles like mitochondria and chloroplasts. We also learn how much lateral transfer of genetic material is performed between species. There is yet another method of classifying organisms known as Cladistics. This is a new method of classification using multiple different genetic, morphological, and other traits. It’s done by the use of supportive computer software, which applies probabilities of each two species being related to each other.
Works Cited
Fedra, K. “Marine Systems Analysis and Modeling: The Challenge to Marine Biology in a Changing World.” Biologische Anstalt Helgoland, 56 (1992): 13-18. Print.
Huh, Lee. “Genetic Diversity and Relationships between Wild and Cultivated Populations of the Sea Lettuce, Enteromorpha Prolifera, in Korea.” Protistology, (2004): 244-49. Print.