The Horns of a Rhino Essay Example for Free

The Horns of a Rhino EssayWhat large mammal has tough, thick, light-grey skin, and has dickens large horns approaching out of its nose? After reading that description, ideally ones answer should be a rhino. In most lineaments, we always picture a rhino to fox dickens horns and light-grey skin, but frequently forget about the rhinoceros who seduce darker colored skin and only one horn. There were at once hundreds of rhinoceros species however, only five species exist to sidereal day. The African Black and White rhinos, and the Sumatran rhinos sustain deuce horns, but the Indian and Javan rhinos from Asia only have one. Why is it that some rhinoceros have cardinal horns while others only have one? I believe that the second horn certain rhinoceros have first came along as a proficient mutation, and then eventually due to earthy selection and allopatric speciation, certain rhinoceros now have two horns instead of one. The rhinos that existed about 60 million years ago be liefed more like todays horses than the typical rhinoceros we atomic number 18 familiar with. This would explain their unusual diet and rather fast speeds. The weight of a rhino ranges from 750 pounds to 8000 pounds.The view should be that for such a massive animal, they would be rather slow however, that is not the case at all. Similar to a horse, Rhinos can be rather fast as well. When charging at an animal, the Rhino could benefit speeds of 56 km/h. With such violent and defensive ways, it is assumed that rhinos be meat eaters however, that is not the case either. Similar to horses, rhinos be herbivores. They like to eat grass, foliage of trees, and bushes. Eating habits and speed are behavioral char deederistics from their ancestors that have remained the same.There are even some physical characteristics that have remained the same like being an odd-toed ungulate. magic spell so many characteristics were carried over from the rhinoceros ancestors, on that point are also many new changes that have evolved the most significant one is the supernumerary horn. I believe that the extra horn came along as a beneficial mutation. When two ancestors of the rhinoceros with a single horn mated, there could have been a mistake in the replication of their DNA and resulted in the extra horn growing above the takingss nose.According to Lamarcks second principle The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics, individuals could pass on to their offspring characteristics they had acquired during their unrecordeds. His hypothesis may be incorrect but it helps explain that a species evolves in response to its surroundings, and becomes crack sufficient to that environment. The rhinoceros may have started with only one horn on its nose but because of the environment it lived in and the strong need for an extra horn for protection, over time the horn it once had evolved into two horns that we see now.Since rhinoceros are herbivores, they would never need to hunt for p rey. Lions who are carnivores hunt regularly for their food, have many experiences fighting and know how to defend themselves. In a situation where a lion and a rhino battles, the rhino would have no way of defending itself for it has less experience fighting, less business office than the lion, and less flexibility. This is why there is such a strong need for an extra horn. The horn would act as protection and by being able to charge at an animal with both horns, there would be an increase in the rhinos chance of survival.According to Charles Darwins theory of growth by natural selection, nature favors the reproductive success of some individuals within a population over others. In this case, nature would select against those with only one horn in this geographic area for those are the rhinoceros who are less strong defensively, and will not be able to survive in that particular area. So eventually, sexual selection will factor into the evolution of the rhino and females would on ly require to mate with rhinoceros who have two horns, resulting in offspring that will have a better chance of surviving and battling against more powerful animals in their habitat.It is known that the Earth didnt always look this way. The Earth was once a super continent and overtime, it has broken up into separate pieces of land which are the continents and islands that we know now. It is very likely that the separation of land also quarantined the population of rhinoceros. This allopatric speciation separated the rhinoceros into two geographically isolated populations. Those who were separated to where we now call Africa had the beneficial mutation of an extra horn.This mutation however, was only shared among themselves because once populations are physically separated, they can no longer transform genetic information. Rhinoceros who went off to Asia did not develop this mutation, and even if they did, it wouldnt have been very beneficial to them in any way. While African rhi nos tend to open low to the ground, Asian rhinos usually feed off leaves higher above the ground. If the Asian rhinos did have this mutation, it could act as a barrier from acquiring food.Allopatric speciation not only affected the rhinoceros physical characteristics but behavioral characteristics as well. Studies delegate that in general, African rhinos are more aggressive than Asian rhinos. Therefore the different geographic areas these rhinos live in affect both physical and behavioral characteristics of each species. In conclusion, the reason some rhinoceros have two horns while others have one is because of their geographic location. While rhinos in Africa developed this mutation, rhinos in Asia did not.Allopatric speciation also did not allow the exchange of this new gene between the population of the two geographic areas. Hence, why most Asian rhinos have one horn and African rhinos have two. African rhinos require the extra horn while rhinos in Asia can make do with just t heir puke teeth for defensive purposes. Rhinos in Asia wont ever come across the same animals the Rhinos in Africa do, so the different species dont share the same need of the horn. Could it be that one day all species of rhinoceros will require that extra horn?