Evolution doesn’t happen at the wave of your wand and at the

words of Abra Kadabra…It’s more like a thing at random, that takes years and years and where u really have no

say in it at all.

Reptilia

Sauria

Lizaria

Lizuana

Iguana Lizard

Legless lizard

Rectileosis

Boidea

Scolecophidia

Turtle

It’s the Family Tree

ReptiliaPhysiological traits:Feeds on sea creatures, cold-blooded, slow metabolism, slow reaction rates, slow moving,

Behavioral traits:Diurnal, abandons eggs, lives alone, sleeps on rocks, feeds in water

Morphological traits:Rigid beak, webbed feet with long claws, cold-blooded, external ears, short stubbed

The reptilia was a species who lived 315 million years ago and was constantly evolving and resulted in several of the species we see today. He lived on the shores of water banks, fishing for his food. He ate little fish and grasses. He slept on the rocks and blended nicely with his brown and grey colouring. Being cold blooded, and needing the help from the sun to digest his food, he also fed on the hot rocks. During this time period, there were still very few land animals. Most species were sea creatures, resulting in very few predators for the reptilia on shore. His main worries were the birds, but since he cammouflouged so nicely, it was hard for the birds high up in the sky to see him.

TurtlePhysiological traits: Cold-blooded, exceptional night vision, slow metabolism and reaction rates. Herbivorous/insectivorous

Behavioral traits:Lays eggs on land, males have long claws to stimulate mating. Parents never care for young, abandon at birth, nocturnal Morphological traits:Has shell deriving from ribs, eyes point towards ground, rigid beak, corresponding shell shapes, webbed feet with long claws (Wikipedia Co., 2009).

The first turtle began to walk the Earth 300 million years ago. Being an evolved form of the reptilia, he shares many of the same traits. The reptila began to be faced with many new predators as other species began to evolve into land dwellers. He was no longer able to laze around on the rocks . His niche had to change drastically because of this. His feeding ground became very competitive and resulted in a shortage of nutrition. Mutations led genotypes of the reptilia species to allow them to eat more grasses and leaves and receive very little protein. Their intestinal tracks grew, because of the difficulty of breaking down different grasses. They also evolved to produce an enzyme that allowed them to break down cellulose found in a lot of vegetation. When there became a time where there was competition for the herbivores, the ones who could break down cellulose had an advantage and were able to live by natural selection. This species also evolved to change their feeding times to night, becoming nocturnal. This is again because of the competition for food and it was easier to collect at night. Over thousands of years the species also encountered a mutation where some began to form small shells on the tops of their backs. Because of natural selection, predators were less tempted tocrack their teeth on the hardshells and ate the ones with-out shells which led to extinc-tion of the reptilia and the turtle was born.

Focuses on Metabolic Processes

SauriaPhysiological traits:Carnivorous/ insectivorous, cold-blooded, faster metabolism

Behavioural traits:Seeks warmth in sunlight to help digest food, lives alone, diurnal, feeds wherever the food was found, sleeps in bushes

Morphological traits:Large, cold-blooded, short tail, external ears, large shielded head, sharp claws, covered in brown scales, covered in spikes

Because the reptilia had to go through such a drastic change in niche over a short period of time, many other species other then the turtle were derived, with the sauria being one of them. The reptilia being a very slow species wasn’t able to run away from predators because they didn’t have to. Now, however, being able to escape predators became an essential in survival. With this being said, the ones who were lucky and had a gene that aloud them to move faster with faster reflexes were the ones who survived, so again because of natural selection the others died off. In regards to his niches, it was safer for them to sleep hidden in bushes, where other bigger night dwellers wouldn’t be bothered to go look for them. Because there began to be a shortage in reptilia, there were fewer females then males, and not enough genes being passed on. According to the selfish gene, the reptilia were desperate to pass on their genes and the males began to mate with a similar species of reptile who had spikes on their backs. They were lucky that they both possesed the same number of chromosomes as well as chemicals in their reproductive systems, allowing for offspring to be produced. The offspring all had big spikes on their backs, becoming unappealing to bigger predators to eat. This new species was then named to be sauria.

Focussing on Genetics

LizariaPhysiological traits:Carnivourous/ insectivourous cold-blooded slow matabolism, slow moving arms are limber

Behavioural traits:Seeks warmth in sunlight to help digest food, lives alone, diurnal, lives in rock crevises.

Morphological traits:Large, cold-blooded, can detach tail, short tail, external ears, large shielded head, sharp claws, covered in brown scales.

Focuses on Genetics

The liazaria, descending from the sauria, have a lot in common. The main thing distinguishing the two species is that they no longer have spikes on their backs. A mutation occurredin the germ line of the offspring. This resulted in its

incapability in producing spikes, and instead, had indentations of where the spikes should have been. The mutation is suspected to have been a“deletion” removing an entire codon from the DNA sequence.This is suspected because besides not havingspikes, the lizaria seemed to be a full adequate species, meaning that no other codons were affectedand all the proper tnzymes were able to be made. This species isnoted to live in big rock crevices, different from in bushes like the sauria. Rock crevices were probably a lot safer, and becausethey didn’t have the big spikes on their backs, they were able to fit. In regards to it’s physiological traits, they are almost identical tothe sauria.

LizuanaPhysiological traits:Long intestinal track, insectivourous/carnivourous, cold-blodded, must eat a lot to maintain osmoregulation, good coloured vision

Behavioral traits:Seek’s warmth and sunlight to help digest their food, whips enemies with tail, live alone, diurnal, can climb trees, where they feed and sleep

Morphological traits:External ears, can detach tail, largely rounded head, no scales, usually brown/grey , long sharp claws, covered in scales

The Lizuana is a descendant from the Lizaria. As millions of years passed, mountain ranges began to form across the land, creating speciation. The specific region where the lizaria inhabited, was spliced in two, leaving half of the species on one side and the other half on the other side. On the side where the Lizuana began to develop, there weren’t very many species at all. This region was avoided by most species because of its lack of other species. The only species available were birds and insects, who all lived high up in the trees. The lizarias weren't able to attain such high places and led to a protein deficiency in their bodies and their internal systems began to eat away at their muscles of nutrients. This resulted in their very narrow, scrawny bodies. Also, because of a mutation, they began to have longer tails that grew to approximately a third of their size. Because many of the species were dying due to malnutrition, they tried desperately to attain the tops of the trees. As time progressed, they were eventually able to dig their claws into the trunks of the trees and climb to the top where they were able to eat several birds and insects. Eventually, small rodents inhabited the area and they fed on those as well. Because of Natural Selection, the grey and brown species were able to live on becausethey camouflagedso well in thetrees androcks.

Focuses on Molecular Genetics

Legless LizardPhysiological traits:Short intestinal track oviparous/carnivorous/insectivourous,  Behavioral traits: nocturnal, seeks warmth and sunlight to help digest food and maintain proper body temperatures. Land dwellers. Morphological traits:long skinny, has eye lids, external ears, short body long tail, no belly scales, remnants of pelvis and legs, can detach tail, has nostrils(Ellis-Christensen, 2003-2009)

On the other side of the mountain range, the lizaria began to evolve into legless lizards. Because the lizarias had such slow movements and metabolism, it was extremely hard for them to run away from predators. Their arms joints weren’t very limberand for this reason, they were constantly slow. A mutation changed that when radiation covered that whole side of the mountain range. The germ line cells of all the species surviving there were destroyed or severely harmed. Most species died off, including the lizaria. The very few, however, who were able to survive all had damaged reproductive cells that caused their offspring to not have any limbs. Because there were so little who actually survived, a huge bottleneck occurred as a genetic drift, but soon led to extinction of that species because they were unable to produce lizaria with limbs. As millions of years went by, the new species of legless lizards developped scales. As a natural selection, the ones who had scales were able to live on because it made the, less prone to diseases and bacteria burying

into their skin, which was very common in this area. They became mainly land-dwellers, because not having any limbs limited them. They didn’t have the skills to swim or climb trees. They switched their

feeding time to night because there were less predators and it was easier for them to find their food, while it was sleeping. This consisted of various rodents and bugs.

Focuses on evolution