Question

Statement 1: Cow in India and Kangaroo in Australia (both herbivores) are ecological equivalents.
Statements 2: The organisms having a similar niche in different geographical regions are known as ecological equivalents.
(a) Both statements 1 and 2 are correct
(b) Statement 1 is correct but statement 2 is incorrect
(c) Statement 1 is incorrect but statement 2 is correct
(d) Both statements 1 and 2 are incorrect

Answer 1

Hint: Unrelated organisms that occupy similar habitats and resemble one another. Ecological equivalents result from convergent evolution. For instance, sharks (fish) and dolphins (mammals) sleep in marine habitats and superficially resemble one another.

Complete Step by Step answer:
Ecological equivalents are the organisms that will occupy the same niche in different habitats (or geographical areas) e.g. both one and cat prey on shrews and mice, they occupy an equivalent niche through their habitats are different.
So, the correct answer is, ‘Both statements 1 and 2 are correct.’

Additional Information:
- Convergent evolution refers to when 2 species which come from different evolutionary stock evolve similar traits and habits in order to survive in their environments. For example, In the case of the lions of the African savanna and the wolves of Yellowstone are both large carnivores and they hunt in packs to take down large prey animals. The behavior and appearance are similar, but the evolutionary stock is different, and so it makes their niche to be different.
- Ecological equivalents are similar to one another in habits and physiology but they occupy different niches and so they are different in this case. Tree swallows and Little brown bats, for example, both catch insects for food on the fly, but bats work by night and while swallows by day. They have converged to this state of similarity, but they do not compete for a niche. Ecological equivalents are typically separated by geography or by the time.

Note: Each species has 1 Niche; no 2 species can share the same niche for long because then the competition for resources will drive, which leads to the elimination of the inferior. This is known as the character displacement or niche shift or niche displacement. An important point is that competition for food, light, and space is most severe between two closely related species occupying the same niche, which will ultimately lead to the extinction of the inferior one.