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Ch. 39 - Animal Form and Function

Chapter 38, Problem 1

True or False: The increase in red blood cell count in tourists visiting Tibet is an example of acclimatization.

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Hello everyone and welcome to today's video. So which of the following is an example of acclimatization? Well, let me quickly help you recall what the process of acclimatization represents for an animal. And here is a good definition. So an organism undergoes acclimatization when it is able to acclimate or to adjust to a change in its environment, allowing it to maintain fitness. And just a note that we're going to use to solve this problem is that acclimatization does not equal evolution. So this is not a new trade that just evolved in the population that allowed them to increase their fitness rather than a trade that already existed there that these organisms are going to use to increase their fitness in a certain environment. So let's now go over answer choices in order to solve this problem. Beginning by answer choice B. The development of thorn shaped leaves among cacti. This is going to help the cacti reduce evaporation. However, this is a trade that is present in all cacti due to evolution because it helps them increase their fitness in very dry environments. This is not their acclimatization to a change in their environments. Who are going to cancel this. Then we have storage in the camel's hump again. This is going to help them reduce or just conserve or storage water because this is not a change in their characteristics or their body in order to acclimate to a change in their environment. We're going to cancel it out as well. This is a permanent trait in the camels. Moving on. We have the development of long ears and tell us among foxes again, this is a permanent trait of these foxes that is used beneficial to them and involved over time due to evolution and natural selection Because of this. We're going to cancel this out because it does not represent acclimatization and this all leaves us with answer choice, a increase food intakes intake of porcupines during the winter. Remember that the winter comes with a change in temperatures, a change in the environment of these porcupines. And so these porcupines are going to be able to increase their food intake to store food within their bodies for the winter. If in case that they will not find this food later on because of this, this is going to help them to a wall to increase their fitness or to maintain fitness in this new environment because of this, this is going to be a perfect example of acclimatization and we're going to highlight it as a final answer to a question. That is the end of the video. And I really hope this helped you