Habitat
The Red Kangaroo is distributed all throughout Australia they like habitats that are semi desert like with small tress to rest and have shade. The Kangaroos do not live further up in humid places as they aren't used to it. These Kangaroo's can be live of small plants and shrubs.
General Information
The Kangaroos generally weight from 22-85 kg in males while in females they weight from 17-35 kg. When aggressive these kangaroos can stand up to 6.6ft tall on their toes. The Red Kangaroo can be distinguished by the white patch on the underbelly and a white mark stretching from the mouth to the ear. The coats can be black-grey to red on the back. Male Red kangaroos can usually recognized by their size differences to the females which tend to be twice as bigger and arms and tails are larger compared to the females.
Background
The Macropod family which consist of the Red Kangaroo and their relatives are said to have existed around 23 million years ago according to fossil records. The earliest forms of kangaroos mainly have been said to live in forested environments these were said to even be able to climb trees. It is said that a Red kangaroo is a just a recent evolution in the history of kangaroos. It is believed that human hunting itself had caused the extinction of 21 species of kangaroo by the Palestinian age.
Adaptation
Climate in Australia is more semi desert like, next to many organisms that live in the semi desert like environment the Red Kangaroo also needs to adapt to conserving as much water as possible. The Red kangaroo has a special water saving mechanism which involved using its own urine which is passed into a special organ which conserves the excess water in the urine and saves all the protein it can which is available in the urine the waste is then in the end excreted out this allows the Red kangaroo to conserve more water then kangaroos that don't have this type or organ and increases their survival chances and chances of passing on their genes. This sort of organ was most likely created through a mutation in their genetic information when climates would be getting desert like in Australia.
Evolution (4-steps of Evolution)
Variations
The variation is whether the Kangaroo has an organ which can conserve water and protein from urine.
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Struggle
The struggle in the desert like environment of Australia in which the Kangaroos live in is for the water as it is scarce at times and hard to find. The fight is therefor who can get the water and who can keep the water and make the best use of it.
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Environmental Selection
The Kangaroos which don't have the organ in which the water can be saved form the urine may have to work twice as harder to find water and may have to do it way more quickly then the Red Kangaroo which does have the organ. This directly increases the chances of survival and passing on their genetic information for the Red Kangaroo and therefore the environment would choose the Red Kangaroo with the organ instead of a Red kangaroo without it.
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Reproduction And Inheritance
As the Red kangaroo with the organ that conserves water from it's urine is more likely to live and pass on their genetic information more and more Red Kangaroos are seen as they are able to live while the ones without the organ may die off. Therefore the more and more Red kangaroos with the organ are reproducing and therefore passing on the gene to the offspring which in turn will have the organ and this process would have gone for many years before all or most of Red kangaroos would have the organ.
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Physiological Adaptation
This is an example of an physiological adaptation because it is a change in the internal parts of the Red Kangaroo.