More chameleon offspring are produced than can survive because the parents know that many chameleons will die before adulthood.
4. Survival of the Fittest
A variation appears in the chameleon offspring. Due to a mutation, some chameleons have long tongues, while others have short tongues.
5. Differential Reproduction
A natural change occurs in the environment. Non-winged insects have become extinct, forcing the chameleons to feed on winged insects. The long-tongued chameleons are able to flick their tongues and capture the winged insects easily. Meanwhile, the winged insects fly away when approached by the short-tongued chameleons, causing the short-tongued chameleons to struggle to find food.
6. Changes in the Gene Pool
A pattern is seen: long-tongued chameleons seldom have trouble capturing and consuming their prey, so they eat well and survive. Short-tongued chameleons can't capture winged insects with their tongues, so they starve and die out.
Since the long-tongued chameleons survive, they reproduce and pass their long-tongue genes to their offspring. Due to starvation, short-tongued chameleons are now scarce and don't reproduce. An adaptation is taking place.
The offspring inherit the long-tongue gene and pass it to their offspring, them to their offspring, and so forth. Over time, the unfavorable short-tongue trait disappears from the gene pool due to natural selection. The gene causes a mutated protein to form, which causes the visible mutation to appear in the offspring. Now, short-tongued chameleons are extremely rare. The chameleon species has evolved.
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