• Question: How have some animals evolved to live in depths that humans cannot?

    Asked by anon-207651 to Scott, Lowri on 14 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Lowri Evans

      Lowri Evans answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      Good question! Life is thought to have originated in the ocean. So we (humans) have evolved not to live in the ocean anymore. Evolution works on a variety of timescales, depending on the lifespan of the organism. Organisms tend to evolve to fill a ‘niche’ or in a way an empty space. So some animals can live at ocean depths, because they have evolved to fill that ‘niche’ – they don’t need light, they don’t need to eat often, they have slow metabolism, they can live in low oxygen conditions. Whereas we (humans) don’t have the physiology to live in the sea anymore. We have lungs, so need to breathe in air etc

    • Photo: Scott Graham

      Scott Graham answered on 14 Mar 2019:

      over time animals will adapt to their environment in order to survive. some animals that live in depths that humans cant have evolved to be able to withstand high pressure such as bottom of the sea. humans currently have no requirement to do this with living on land. maybe in a thousands of years with our environment changing humans may need to adapt in some form to survive.

      did you know that a marine creature called a tardigrade or water bear can survive pretty much any environment. it is haven been sent to space and been exposed to space environment and still be alive when back to earth.

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