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Succession and Natural Selection

Wendy Lile

SCI275

February 25, 2012

Sarah Hsu

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Succession and Natural SelectionThe succession animation is secondary succession because soil is present the whole time.

It is only primary succession if there were not any species in a totally uninhabited environment,

but there were already trees, shrubs, animals, and aquatic life present.

I hypothesize that the limbless salamander has evolved and came about because of the

region that they live in. Perhaps these specific salamanders resided by a shoreline and to avoid

predators inland, had to escape to the water for safety. After years of going in and out of the

water generations of salamanders started to change or evolve. The salamanders no longer need a

second pair of limbs because they are mostly in the water and it would be considered an

unfavorable trait, according to Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Not all salamanders are

losing their back legs, only the ones in this region. Eventually they might lose both of their sets

of legs and live only on the shore banks and in the water. Maybe even over more time, the

salamander would turn into a strictly aquatic creature and even develop gills to be able to breathe

underwater.