Some bacteria are able to thrive in very warm environments such as the hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. Explain how natural selection may have allowed these organisms to inhabit this harsh environment
What will be an ideal response?
The hot springs in Yellowstone provided a new ecological habitat that was not being exploited by any living organisms. Bacteria near the hot springs could not survive the increased temperature. Some individuals within the bacterial populations had variations that allowed them to withstand a slightly higher temperature than their neighbors. This allowed these organisms to move into the cooler parts of the hot springs pools without competition from others. Eventually these pioneer organisms multiplied and some individuals within this new population could tolerate slightly higher temperatures. These moved into the warmer parts of the pools. Through this step-wise process, eventually there emerged bacteria that could not only tolerate the higher temperatures but actually thrived under these conditions. Natural selection describes the process by which those individuals that were better able to tolerate the increased temperatures thrived within these habitats while others did not.
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