Monday, November 17, 2008

Right now in class we are learning about symbiotic relationships. Symbiosis is a close relationship between two organism where one organism lives near, on, or even inside another organism. In symbiosis at least one organism has to benefit from the relationship. There are three types of symbiotic relationships: Mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Mutualism is when both organisms benefit from their symbiotic relationship. Commensalism is when one organism benefits from the symbiotic relationship and the other organism is not harmed. Parasitism is when one organism benefits from the symbiotic relationship and the other organism is not harmed. An example of mutualism would be honey bees and flowers because both the honey bees and the flower benefit in this relationship. An example of commensalism would be humans and the mites that live at the base of your eyebrows because the mites are helped by this relationship and the human is not harmed or helped. An example of parasitism would be a dog and a flea because the flea is helped but the dog is harmed. All in all, I think that symbiosis is a very interesting topic to learn about.

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