COMMENSALISM

Updated 05-May-2020.

Mondo shtuff from around the internet, all about COMMENSALISM!

commensalism | Definition, Examples, & Facts: Commensalism, in biology, a relationship between two species in which one obtains benefits from the other without harming or benefiting it.

My botty best at summarizing from Wikipedia: commensalism is a long-term biological interaction (symbiosis) in which members of one species gain benefits while those of the other species neither benefit nor are harmed . this is in contrast to mutual Commensality, at the Oxford and the Cambridge Universities, refers to professors eating at the same table as students (as they live in the same “college”) Pierre-Joseph van Bene animal domestication is a coevolutionary process in which a population adapts to selective pressure . common pathway animals include dogs, cats, fowl, and possibly pigs . archaeological evidence supports the cats may have become fully dependent on a commensal lifestyle before domestication . debate over level of intentionality in domestication process remains untested . earliest sign of domestication in dogs was neoton remains of extinct Pleistocene Beringian wolves with unique mitochondrial signatures . skull shape, tooth wear, and isotopic signatures suggest remains were derived from extinct megafauna many strains of Staphylococcus aureus are metabiotic commensals . they are present on roughly 20 to 30% of the human population as part of the skin flora . some biologists argue epiphytes may intercept nutrients that would otherwise go to the host plant . phoretic mites may hinder their host by making flight more difficult . epiphytic plants grow on trees, birds live in holes in trees . Examples include maggots, which feast and develop on corpses, and hermit crabs, who use gastropod shells to protect their bodies. Encyclopdia Britannica.