Symbiosis

Now you might be wonder why someone would post a picture of a hand on their science blog. What's a hand got to do with science? However odd this might seem, this hand has everything to do with science. For example: it happens to represent one of the three relationships of symbiosis. Symbiosis is a close relationship between two species that benefits at least one of the species. Furthermore, the three relationships of symbiosis are mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism. Mutualism is when two species benefit from each other because of their relationship. Commensalism is when one of the species benefits from the relationship while the other is neither helped or harmed. Lastly, parasitism is when one organism lives in or on another organism and harms it.

This hand represents mutualism. I claim that there are mites that live on this hand that clean all the dead skin cells away. This process occurs over the whole human body. While the "owner" of the hand receives cleanliness, the mites also benefit. Moreover, the mites have food to eat (dead skin cells), a place to live (the hand), and a purpose to serve (free the hand of dead skin cells). Since both the organisms seem to benefit, this exemplifies that this is a mutualistic relationship.

Picture: Orangemath96.blogspot.com

Source: Classroom