Variation

Apuntes

Variation within a species Chapter 3 – Topic 1 Variation within a species Starting point – Understanding variation Characteristics vary between one organism and another. Scientists classify organisms by putting them into categories and groups. A species is a group of organisms that share very similar characteristics. Proboscis monkeys and orangutans live on the island of Borneo in Malaysia. Both species are types of monkey. Most proboscis monkeys have straight red hair. Not all proboscis monkeys look identical, however—they are all different sizes. Differences within a species are called variation. Some characteristics may be present in all individuals of a species—for example, all monkeys have hair. Some characteristics vary—for example, monkeys vary in their hair colour, hair length, nose shape and eye colour. There is much less variation in a characteristic between two members of the same species than between organisms from different species. For example, proboscis monkeys and orangutans have the same type of skin but vary in hair colour. ⸻ Discontinuous variation Variation with a set of distinct options is discontinuous variation. For example, some people are able to ...