Can you answer this science question?

Question

My cousin has this question for his science class's discussion tomorrow.. What do you think is the answer?

You decide to find a mysterious fabled creature, a type of lizard who lives in a large field in Asia. When you get there, you find not 1, but 2 species of the lizard there. You find that a very large crevice had opened up along one small part of the valley, not allowed anything to cross it. In the isolated part of the valley, you find that the lizards are much bigger and eat the tree's bark (they have something in their bodies that allows them to digest the bark). In the other are, you find smaller lizards that cannot eat the tree bark, but rather eat flowers.

How is it possible that the 1 species diverged into the 2 found today in the field?

Answer 1

the crevice has split the original lizard population in two, stopping any gene flow between them and meaning that each would evolve according to the particular circumstances of the surroundings they now live in (assuming the environments are different in some way). If there were no crevice, gene flow would be uninterrupted between all lizards in the field and there would be no chance for any discreet evolutionary change between groups. There could be several possibilities for the resulting differences described:
a) the area where the larger lizards are found could be lacking in predators, meaning the lizards can develop a larger size due to not needing to be small enough to hide in holes to avoid predation (or vice versa, the smaller lizard area may be more abundant in predators, selecting for smaller body size to aid survival).
b) the area where the larger lizards are could be lacking in the flowers that the smaller ones eat, so they evolved to feed instead on the tree bark, possibly needing to be larger to reach it, or to have more body mass to rip it from the tree or to digest it.
c) it could be the result of random genetic fluctuation (not everything in evolution happens for a particular reason); for example, the isolated population could have been composed of larger individual lizards to begin with and there may simply have been nothing constraining further growth

Answer 2

the first event would have been the creation of the chasm that caused the isolation.

the second event would be the specialization. some of the ancestors most likely had some ability to eat bark, or individuals within the population had the ability to digest bark. the ones who could digest bark had a greater survival rate, and were more likely to pass on their 'bark digesting genes'

third factor would be on a genetic level, attached to the 'bark digesting gene' was a gene related to size, causing the species to be large, or characterized as large.

Answer 3

It's a hypothetical question, if nothing can cross the crevice than how did the scientist get there to examine the so called lizards? It's bogus and they're just trying to push the evolution dogma on another unsuspecting mind.

Answer 4

some lizards might have went into the large crevice and then adapted to that part of the environment so they can survive there.

Answer 5

Do urself that is wad people told me when i ask a question

Answer 6

adaptation