1. You will notice that some lineages (e.g., the descendants of species 56) branched many times and are represented by many living species. (A real world example would be the diversification of the mammals at the beginning of the Cenozoic period, right after the dinosaurs went extinct.)

What ecological conditions do you think might result in the rapid diversification of some lineages?

Answer:
Lack of food recourses, the lack of territory, and competition with other species and evolving ways to compete. Lack of territory and/or food can cause members to move and therefore have to evolve, adapt to the new environment, survivors the ones who have evolved ways to live are in turn the ones who mate and produce more like itself.
Changing environment, climate and so on, ice ages, droughts, floods are all things organisms have to adapt too.
A good example is one I heard off in High school, in an area there are 2 kinds of moths a black type and a white type. The trees in the area are white therefore the black moths were easily seen and eaten, the white ones being camouflaged and therefore protect survived in bigger numbers, and reproduced more frequently. Then a factory opened in the area and the trees were blackened from pollution. This therefore exposed the white moths and the black ones were protected. The Black moth numbers increased and the white ones decreased.

2. Some lineages (e.g., the descendants of species 5 changed very little over time. A good example of this would be “living fossils” like the horseshoe crab or cockroach.

What ecological conditions do you think might result in this sort of long-term evolutionary stasis?

Answer:
The ability to reproduce and survive in an area means a species does not need to adapt or evolve. Sharks are another good example; they haven’t changed much at all since their first appearance. They don’t need to; they are perfect hunters in the water and with lots of area to cover. Of course there are many species, each having adapted to their areas.
Unchanging ecological conditions results in this long term stasis. Sharks can adapt without having to evolve. Same as cockroaches. Single celled organisms are another good example because they never evolved to multi celled organisms, but they are well adapted for their environment.

Hope this helps

This is one of my essay questions and anyone who uses it is violating an academic honesty policy and will receive a "0".

I wish to ask the biological community to affirm or deny my concept that porpoise are more highly intelligent than our own species. I reflect upon findings of sea-goers that would suggest more highly intelligent life-forms visit the most intelligent life forms on this planet we refer to as earth.

The premise is predicated upon mass of the frontal lobe. Would the biological community feel threatened to confirm of deny that existing life-forms are more intelligent?

I need to find a website that will enlgage me in discussion. Would someone please direct me to this website? Thank you

Technically, if the student knows how to research the answer and find it (though it may be spoonfed to them in this case), then isn’t that what "learning" is all about? I wouldn’t tell you to stop teaching your students the right answer, so don’t tell your students how they can or cannot find the answer. How is this any different than finding the information on a bookshelf somewhere? It’s almost like you are making learning a privelege. Talk about evolutionary stasis…that’s where are brains are heading because of people like you in this world. If you paid more attention to teaching your students then maybe they wouldn’t have to come here to find the answer…ass!

I am happy someone commented about this teacher. She has given me nuerous bad grades just because I asked for help. I don’t believe in evolution and she forced me to do the lessons pretty much. She is very unfair. She throws out all my answers that talk about the creation instead of evolution. Eithernteach both or don’t teach none. That is how I see it.