Question:

Over-exploitation of a species reduces the size of its population eventually leading to its extinction. Steller's sea cow is a large, herbivorous, terrestrial mammal which is on the verge of extinction due to over exploitation.

Updated On: Jul 6, 2022
  • If both assertion and reason are true and reason is the correct explanation of assertion
  • If both assertion and reason are true but reason is not the correct explanation of assertion
  • If assertion is true but reason is false
  • If both assertion and reason are false
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The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

Over exploitation or over-harvesting of a plant or an animal species reduces the size of its population leading to its extinction. Over-exploitation is one of the major causes threatening global biodiversity. Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) was a large, herbivorous, marine mammal (largest member of the order- Sirenia) which had been discovered in $1741$ and became extinct by $1768$. It is one of the few megafaunal mammal species to have died out during the historical period. It was over harvested for food, for skin, for its valuable subcutaneous fat, etc.
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Concepts Used:

Biodiversity and Conservation

The term ‘biodiversity’ is derived from the two words- ‘bios' which means life and ‘diversity’ i.e, differentiation or variation. Edward Wilson, the sociobiologist was the first to popularise the term ‘biodiversity’ in the year 1992. The term implies the occurrence of various plants and animals along with their variants such as biotypes, ecotypes and genes on earth. In our biosphere, the immense diversity or heterogeneity remains not only at the species level but also, at every level of biological organization that ranges from macromolecules in the cells to biomes.

Biodiversity and Conservation is a topic covered under the fifteenth chapter and Unit 5 of NCERT class 12 biology.