The Theory of

Evolution
 A theory…
Explains the current observations and
predicts new observations.
Explains: Present day organisms are
similar, but not identical, to fossil
organisms.
Explains: Biodiversity
Explains: Populations are well suited
to their environments; molecules,
organelles and cells specialized.
Predicts?
 A Theory…
What types of evidence would help
us confirm these predictions?
•Fossils
•Embryology
•DNA sequence
•Similar Body Structures
 What is a species?

A species is a group of organisms that can mate

and produce fertile offspring.
Are all dogs the same species with
variations or are they different
species ?

German Shepherd Dachshund Great Dane

Can a German Shepard and a Great

Dane mate and produce offspring ?
A Puggle!!
 A Laboradoodle…. Of course.

So, dogs of different breeds are members of the same

species. They can produce fertile offspring.
 Variation and Adaptation
• Populations are groups of organisms of the same
species living together.
• Variation exists among members of every
population
• A population/species has adaptations for survival
in a particular niche

What’s the difference between variation and

adaptation?
All giant anteaters have the same
noticeable adaptations.

1) long snout
for prodding ant hills
2) long tail
for balance

3) sharp claws
for tearing through
termite mounds
(Myrmecophaga tridacttyla)
AND
4) long sticky
tongue
for capturing
insects
 Types of Adaptations
Anything that helps an organism
• Hide from/defend against predators
• Attract a mate/reproduce (sexual selection)
• Catch food
Hide from/defend against
predators
Attract a mate/reproduce
Male-male contest
Mate selection
Anole
Elephant Seal
Peacock
Peahen
Irish Elk
Catch Food
 Through adaptations, populations often
become suited to a specific habitat or niche.

chickadee
Duck foot
Broadly speaking, a niche is a habitat and
the role a population plays in that habitat.
 Darwin &
Evolution by
Natural Selection

er
Warbl
finch
es

Gr
Cactus
ch

ou
in

eater

nd
f
ee

fin
Insect eaters
Tr

ch
es
Seed eaters

Bud eater
Beginning in the late 1700’s paleontologists
were beginning to discover fossils of
animals that no longer existed.
The first systematic explanation of evolution
was put forth by the French scientist Jean-
Baptiste Lamarck in 1809. In his theory,
Lamarck described a mechanism for evolution
known as “the inheritance of acquired
characteristics.”

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1774-1829)

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Lamarck believed that
fossils of extinct
animals were the
ancestors of animals
living today.
 First,
1. Lamarck thought
Organisms that organisms
constantly strive to
constantlyimprove
strive to themselves.
improve themselves.
Second, he believed that the most-used body
2. The most-used
structures body unused
develop, whereas structures
body
develop,
structures unused
waste away. structures
This idea waswaste
called
away. “Use
the principle and
of “use andDisuse”
disuse.”

(According to Lamarck, the legs of salamanders could

disappear because of disuse. Thus legless salamanders would
have evolved from salamanders with legs.)
3. Once a structure was modified by use or disuse,
modification is inherited by offspring. This third
principle is called the “inheritance of acquired
characteristics

(Lamark stated that a giraffe’s neck gradually became longer

due to stretching it during its lifetime. Their longer necks
could then be passed on to their offspring.)
 Lamark’s
hypothesis
about the
inheritance of
acquired
characteristics
was later
disproved by
German
biologist
August
Weismann
Despite Lamarck being wrong, the
search for a mechanism had
begun.
The individual to finally discover
the mechanism of evolution would
be . . .
Charles Darwin

. .
1809 - 1882
 Charles Darwin
• Proposed a way how
evolution works
– How did creatures change
over time?
– by natural selection
• Collected a lot of
evidence to support his
ideas
– 1809-1882
– British naturalist
 Earlier ideas on Evolution
• LaMarck
– evolution by acquired traits
• creatures developed traits
during their lifetime
• give those traits to their
offspring
– example
• in reaching higher
leaves giraffes stretch their
necks & give the acquired
longer neck to offspring
– not accepted as valid
 Darwin’s view of Evolution
• Darwin


– giraffes that already
have long necks
survive better
– leave more offspring who
inherit their long necks
• variation
• selection & survival
• reproduction &
inheritance of more
fit traits
 Voyage of the HMS Beagle
• Invited to travel around the world
– 1831-1836 (22 years old!)
– makes many observations of nature
• main mission of the Beagle was to chart
South American coastline

Robert Fitzroy
Voyage of the HMS Beagle

• Stopped in Galapagos Islands

– 500 miles off coast of Ecuador
 Galapagos
Recently formed volcanic
islands. Most of animals on
the Galápagos live nowhere
else in world, but they look
like species living on South
American mainland.

800 km west of Ecuador

Darwin’s journal gives a detailed description of the
historic journey and has been published as
"The Voyage of the Beagle.”
Darwin found…many unique
species

Many of Darwin’s observations made

him wonder… Why?

Darwin asked:
Why were these creatures found only
on the Galapagos Islands?
 Darwin found…clues in the
fossils
Darwin found:
Evidence that creatures
have changed over time

present day Armadillos

Darwin asked:
Why should extinct
armadillos & modern
armadillos be found on
ancient Armadillo
same continent?
Darwin found:
Different shells on tortoises on different islands

Darwin asked:
Is there a relationship
between the environment
& what an animal
looks like?
 Darwin found… birds
Darwin found:
Many different birds on Finch? Sparrow?

the Galapagos Islands.

He thought he found
very different kinds…

Woodpecker? Warbler?
 But Darwin found… a lot of finches
Darwin was amazed to Darwin asked:
find out:
If the Galapagos
All 14 species of birds
finches came from the
were finches…
mainland, why are they
But there is only one
so different
Large ground now?
species of finch on the Finch?
finch
Small ground
Sparrow?
finch
mainland!

Warbler finch
Woodpecker? Tree finch
Warbler?
 The
Darwin found:
finches cinched it!
 different beaks are

inherited variations
The differences between  serve as adaptations
species of finches were that help birds said:
Darwin compete
associated with the for food
different food they ate. these birds Ahaaaa!
survive &
Big
Large
seed Aeater
flock of South
ground
Finch? Small
Small seed
ground
Sparrow? eater
reproduce
American finches
finch
QuickTime™ and a
finch
Photo - JPEG decompressor

 pass on the genes for

are needed to see this picture.

were stranded on the

those more fit beaks
Galapagos…
 over time nature selected

for different species with

different beaks
Warbler
Insect eater
finch
Woodpecker? Leaf
Tree
& bud
finch
Warbler? eater
Relationship between species (beaks) & food
 Darwin’s finches
• Darwin’s conclusions
– variations in beaks
• differences in beaks in the original flock
• adaptations to foods available on islands
– natural selection for most fit
• over many generations, the finches were selected for
specific beaks & behaviors
– offspring inherit successful traits
• accumulation of winning traits:
both beaks & behaviors
– separate into different species
 From 1 species to 14 species…
Warbler finch Cactus finch

Woodpecker finch Sharp-beaked finch

Small Small
er
insectivorous Warbl ground
tree finch finch finch

Gr
es
Large Cactus
ch

ou
insectivorous eater Medium
fin

nd
tree finch ground
ee

fin
Insect eaters finch
Tr

ch
es
Seed eaters Large
Vegetarian ground
tree finch Bud eater finch

natural selection for best

variation survival & reproduction
 Darwin’s Theory of
“Natural Selection”
1. There is variation within
populations. Some
variations are favorable.
2. More offspring are born
than can possibly survive
due to limited resource.
3. Individuals that survive
and reproduce are those
with favorable traits.
 Natural Selection

variation Differences Changes in

in fitness a population
On November
24, 1859,
Darwin’s
book,
“On the
Origin of
Species ”
is published.
 Artificial Selection
Evolution can be seen experimentally
through artificial selection.
Corn has been selected to produce
larger and larger ears over the
past 200 years.
All dogs breeds were created from wolves by
humans over a 10,000 year period.
 Classification

Taxonomy: The science

of naming organisms.
 What variety! What similarity!
• Diversity of Life
– there are so many different creatures on
Earth
– why are there differences?
• Unity of life
– all creatures have
similarities
– common characteristics
– why are they so alike?
 Aristotle

• Plant or animal?
• If an animal, does it
– Fly
– Swim
– Crawl
• Simple classifications
• Used common names
 Carolus Linnaeus
Swedish botanist, 1750s
• Developed binomial nomenclature
• First word = genus name
• Second word = species name
• Must be underlined or in italics
• Genus capitalized
ex. Homo sapiens
 Why binomial nomenclature?
• Much easier than a 10+ word name under
old “polynomial system”
• Less confusion
• Binomial = SCIENTIFIC NAME
Classification
• Kingdom (Broad)
• Phylum Kings
Play
• Class Chess
• Order On Fiber
Glass
• Family Stools
• Genus
• Species (most specific)
 Organizing systems
• Making sense out of the differences

Eastern gray squirrel

Sciurus carolinensis
 Taxonomic hierarchy
• Names organisms and their relationships
from very broad to very specific
 What is a species anyway?
• Biological species concept
– A group of actually or potentially breeding
natural groups that are reproductively isolated
from other groups.
• BSC’s problems
– Hybrids
• Sterile offspring of two different species
– Asexual organisms
 How many are out there?
• Scientists currently estimate that
– There are 10 million species worldwide
– Over 5 million live in the tropics
– Most unnamed species are small or microscopic
 Why is taxonomy useful?
• Helps to show how organisms are related
• Can be used to reconstruct phylogenies –
evolutionary histories – of an organism or
group
 Cladograms
• Graph showing when different groups diverged
from a common ancestral line
• Points where they diverge are often noted with a
feature that was different between ancestral group
and a “new” feature in the group that split off.
Phylogenetic Systematics - Characters and Taxa

orangutan Gorilla Pan H. sapien

The common ancestral bipedal
lineage to Pan (chimps) complex
language
and H. sapien eventually
splits to form the use of tools
ancestors to
chimpanzees and H. reduced
sapien. hairiness

upright posture
time
 How are Phylogenic Relationships
Determined?

• DNA: a “genetic
code”
• More closely
related organisms
have more
similarities in their
DNA code
 Structure
Closely related organisms may have similar
(homologous) structures, adapted to their
particular niches
 Embryology and Development
Closely related
organisms will have
similar embryo
development
Organizing the world of
organisms
• The Tree of Life
– organize creatures by
structure & function
• how they are built
• how they live
– organize them into
groups of closely
related creatures
 Three Domains, 6 Kingdoms
•Domain Archaea
•Contains 1 kingdom – the Archaebacteria

•Domain Bacteria
•Contains 1 kingdom – the Eubacteria

•Domain Eukarya
•Contains 4 Kingdoms:
-Protista
-Fungi
-Animalia
-Plantae
 Prokaryotes

Kingdom Kingdom Kingdom

Bacteria Archaebacteria Protist
Eukaryotes

Kingdom Kingdom Kingdom

Fungi Plant Animal
 Eukaryote

Classification
• 6 Kingdom system Prokaryote

– Prokaryotes
• No separate organelles in their cells
• Bacteria
• Archaebacteria
– Eukaryotes
• Separate organelles
in their cells
• Protists
• Plants
• Fungi
• Animals Bacteria
&
Archaebacteria
 Prokaryotes
• Bacteria
– one-celled organisms
– microscopic
– no organelles
• have cell membrane
• have DNA
– most common form of life on Earth
– incredible number of different kinds
 Archeabacteria
• Ancient bacteria
– live in extreme environments
• high heat
• high salt
hot spring in which archaea
• similar to bacteria are found
but have different
cell wall compounds
 Eubacteria

Most common bacteria,

found everywhere!
Prokaryotic = no
nucleus

DNA is not in a nucleus

as in eukaryotes.

plasmids are
small loops of DNA

cell wall composition determines gram-positive and

gram-negative types.
TRUE BACTERIA -
MORPHOLOGY
Eukaryotes - Morphology

• Nucleus
• DNA organized
into chromosomes.
•Many organelles
(cell parts)
 Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes can be unicellular or multicellular.
All have nuclei and organelles within cells.
Plants: autotrophic,
multicellular, cell
walls made of
cellulose

Fungi: heterotrophic,
decomposers, cell
walls made of chitin
 Animals: Multicellular, heterotrophic

ANIMALIA PHYLA

Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminth Annelida Mollusca Arthropoda Echinodermata Chordata

Animals: Chordates
 Eukaryotes
Protists: Eukaryotic organisms that are less
organized than plants, animals, fungi….
• Some are plant-like

• Some are animal-like

algae

• Some are fungus-like paramecium

Slime mold
amoeba