Analysis: Evolutionary Arms Race
Anth1
Response Paper
Evolutionary Arms Race Right now there is tense development going between Russia and the United States. Russia is seeking to expand into the Ukrainian Crimea region, setting the stage to the once known “cold war”. The film “Evolutionary Arms Race” arrays a comparable situation going on between predator and prey. Both sides are vying for dominance over one another. Through biological and cooperative factors, it propels species to evolve into survival fitting machine. In the beginning of the film it shows two professors describing a creature who has evolved into the “most extreme and deadly” of species. The creature they are talking about becomes identified as the “Newt”. Newts are aquatic amphibian creatures’ part of the Salamander family. In the scheme of predator and prey, the newt is known as the prey and its opposite is considered the garter snake. As a defense mechanism to the garter snake the newt produces a toxic nerve poison. This toxic poison is known as Tetrodotoxin, poison so powerful that if you digested a drop it will lead to organ failure and death. The question then arises how did the poison become so powerful? Well it turns out that the garter snake was the answer. Through years the garter snake has been preying on newts, and over time through newts offspring the response to the predator was to create a more powerful poison. Resembling the newts evolution, the garter snake developed a response. Just like Russia and the United States during the cold war, garter snakes evolved to adjust to the new toxic poison of newts. As the toxicity levels in the newts rose, the garter snake began to develop a higher resistance to the poison. But by developing the new resistance to the newts, it came at a cost for the garter snakes. The snakes with the developed resistance is able handle the poison but would be susceptible to a reduced movement speed after. Evolution then flips the tables on the species and before you know it, the
Response Paper
Evolutionary Arms Race Right now there is tense development going between Russia and the United States. Russia is seeking to expand into the Ukrainian Crimea region, setting the stage to the once known “cold war”. The film “Evolutionary Arms Race” arrays a comparable situation going on between predator and prey. Both sides are vying for dominance over one another. Through biological and cooperative factors, it propels species to evolve into survival fitting machine. In the beginning of the film it shows two professors describing a creature who has evolved into the “most extreme and deadly” of species. The creature they are talking about becomes identified as the “Newt”. Newts are aquatic amphibian creatures’ part of the Salamander family. In the scheme of predator and prey, the newt is known as the prey and its opposite is considered the garter snake. As a defense mechanism to the garter snake the newt produces a toxic nerve poison. This toxic poison is known as Tetrodotoxin, poison so powerful that if you digested a drop it will lead to organ failure and death. The question then arises how did the poison become so powerful? Well it turns out that the garter snake was the answer. Through years the garter snake has been preying on newts, and over time through newts offspring the response to the predator was to create a more powerful poison. Resembling the newts evolution, the garter snake developed a response. Just like Russia and the United States during the cold war, garter snakes evolved to adjust to the new toxic poison of newts. As the toxicity levels in the newts rose, the garter snake began to develop a higher resistance to the poison. But by developing the new resistance to the newts, it came at a cost for the garter snakes. The snakes with the developed resistance is able handle the poison but would be susceptible to a reduced movement speed after. Evolution then flips the tables on the species and before you know it, the