Sickle Cell Adaptation Essay

Variation in body shapes and sizes, skin color, and the sickle-cell allele, are traits that have been shaped as adaptations by evolutionary forces. Adaptations by evolutionary forces are adaptive traits an organism acquires through long-term natural selection. Adaptive traits are usually physical characteristics or behaviors that allow an organism to live and reproduce in its environment. In other words, traits from natural selection to improve an organism’s fitness. Although adaptive traits are a result of natural selection, it has its cost. In addition, adaptive traits are never perfect, and could actually harm the organism in another way.
Variation in body shapes and sizes are traits shaped as adaptations by evolutionary forces because it is an adaptive trait for dealing with heat levels of an environment. This relationship was first discovered in the 19th century by German Biologist, Carl Bergmann and American zoologist, Joe Allen. According to Bergmann’s rule, “an animal’s size is heat-related where smaller bodies are adapted to hot environments, and larger bodies are adapted to cold environments”(Larsen 2017). This is

This is an example of an adaptation having its cost. Essentially, the sickle-cell allele causes sickle-cell anemia, which alters the shape of the red-blood cell, resulting in lack of oxygen traveling in the body, and eventually could lead to death. Although it is a dangerous adaptation, it is an adaptive trait to fight against malaria. Due to the irregular shape of the red-blood cells created by the sickle-cell allele, the parasite that causes malaria is unable to infect the person. Another thing to point out, the sickle-cell allele is often present in environments where malaria is present. With this connection, the sickle-cell allele is a trait shaped as an adaptation by evolutionary forces, because it was formed to fight against