Learnt on my course that roughly 22% of all the species recorded are a type of beetle! Why is this?
2007-11-23 01:33:47 · 6 answers · asked by Moi? 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
*Species (apologies for the typo)
2007-11-23 01:57:34 · update #1
Cos they heard sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club now they ALL wanna be John Lennon
2007-11-23 01:39:57 · answer #1 · answered by TroutSniff 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
there are lots of places where beetles can live.
the biological answer is that the different species must have evolved from one single species. they got separated and were subjected to different environmental conditions. the beetles which were most suited to their environment survived and bred. since there was no interbreeding between the beetles in the different places, speciation occured and they eventually became separate species.
add to this the fact that beetles have been around for a very very very long time, thats why there are so many kinds.
2007-11-23 02:47:55 · answer #2 · answered by kat 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because, as Carolus Linnaeus is said to have observed, "God must be inordinately fond of beetles".
But if you think about it, it makes sense that beetles would even to "fit" all kinds of strange evolutionary niches; there are very small, very hardy, and relatively simple insects.
2007-11-23 01:58:45 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Kaboudit, that wasn't Linnaeus that said that about God and beetles, but the biologist JBS Haldane. Asked whether there is a God, he is reported to have replied: "I don't know, but if there is, he is inordinately fond of beetles."
2007-11-23 08:06:56 · answer #4 · answered by Daniel R 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I always thought there were more species of insects than anything else.
2007-11-23 01:43:42 · answer #5 · answered by happy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
learnt? Don't worry about the course.
2007-11-23 02:55:54 · answer #6 · answered by thephinswin07 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋