Trials of Life-1

Last Wednesday I was forced to stay in Ecology lab and watch a DVD called, "The Trials of Life," which because of the length, I found somewhat boring. Some parts of it I did find interesting though. So because its all about adaptations and I took notes while watching the DVD, I think I write a few blogs about it. Here I go. One specific [behavioral] adaptation of a particular type of prey (in the rainforest environment) would be the Trinidad Tree Frog developing an aquatic nursery to keep its embryos safe from predatory fish. The adult frogs house their developing embryos in a small sphere of sticky jelly (on tree branches, above water), which will dissolve away once the offspring reach a mature stage of development. This then allows them to fall into the main body of water below and complete maturation. The point of the behavior is that the frog embryos are kept away from the predatory fish until they have outgrown their vulnerable infancy stage and developed well enough so that they may be able to defend themselves against attackers. A specific example of adaptation involving partners in a mutualism would be how the shape of the Saber Wing Hummingbird beak has developed so that it fits perfectly with its food source, the Columbian flower. The hummingbird derives nectar from the flower and the flower benefits from the relationship by having the hummingbird carry out its pollination.