Diario de cocoeinarsen

I chose to look at the phylogeny for the Eastern Grey Squirrel, or the Sciurus carolinensis. It is apart of genus Sciurus, the family sciuridae, in the order Rodentia, and is a part of the Mammalia class. An adaptation that is very beneficial to the Eastern Grey Squirrels lifestyle is the anatomy of their back legs. They can rotate their back feet, allowing them to climb down trees head first. This adaptation assists in avoiding predation, reaching food, and easy travel between trees. Eastern Grey Squirrels are also equipped with especially good memories that are helpful in finding the food stashes that they hideaway for the winter time. Since most of my other observations were apart of the phylum arthropoda, while the Eastern Grey Squirrel is apart of the phylum chordata it proves difficulty in finding an adaptation that most if not all have in common. However, it can be said that from observing all of the species that I did they share the adaptation of camouflage. That is they are more or less blend into their habitual environment, to such a degree that often times I had trouble capturing them on camera or even finding them. The adaptation of camouflage can be extremely helpful in avoiding predation and even tricking prey into believing they are safe. 2 species that can be observed to actually have evolved from the Sciurus carolinensis on its phylogenetic tree are the Sciurus aberti and the Sciurus griseus.