Question

How did this diversification come about?

Answer 1

Part 1: Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the variety of organisms present on earth. Species richness and diversity is caused due to various reasons.

Part 2: Reason for diversification

• Changes in the physical environment- Constant changes in the temperature, salinity, soil composition and biotic components would prompt selection of positive variations (mutations) in a population.
• Natural selection of these variations would lead to speciation.
• Adaptive radiation- This phenomenon would cause species formation based on changing geographical habitats. Example the evolution of marsupials and placental mammals in Australia.