What is coevolution?

Coevolution is when two or more things change together over time, helping each other out like friends working on a project.

Imagine you and your friend are both trying to build the best treehouse ever. You decide to help each other: you give your friend strong rope so they can make the ladder bigger, and your friend gives you wooden planks for your platform. Over time, you both get better at building, you learn how to tie knots faster, and your friend learns how to cut wood more neatly. Because of each other, you both improve.

Think about playing tag with your friends every day. At first, you're all slow runners. But as the days go by, you run faster because you want to catch someone or not get caught. Your friends also run faster because they don’t want to be tagged. Over time, everyone becomes super fast, and it’s all because of each other! That's coevolution in action.

Bees and flowers are like best friends who help each other out. Bees pollinate flowers, which helps the flowers make more flowers. Flowers give bees nectar to eat. Over time, both bees and flowers become better at what they do, just like you and your friend with the treehouse!