Evolution
Evolution, n. [L. evolutio - an unrolling] 1: a process of change in a certain direction 2: a theory that the various types of animals and plants have their origin in other preexisting types and that the distinguishable differences are due to modifications in successive generations
Charles Darwin naturalist and collector amateur geologist avid reader and soon to be traveler
Darwin’s Thoughts Why are some animals only in certain places? How old is the earth? Where do fossils fit in? Has everything always been here on Earth? Where did humans come from? Why are there so many different kinds of animals? Do plants ever change?
Darwin’s Voyage
Darwin’s Observations Buried fossil skeletons of animals no longer around Finches with small changes in beak shape associated with different diets Tortoises in different ecosystems with different shell types Layers of sedimentary rock exposed from an earlier time
Evidence for Evolution Geologic Time Scale Fossil Record Homologous Structures Embryology Molecular Biology
Is the Earth Old Enough?
Time Scale for Life
Earth’s Cool Dance – the Continental Drift Permian – 225 myaTriassic – 200 mya Jurassic – 135 myaCretanceous – 65mya Present
Best Geology on Earth – New England Trilobites at Lake Champlain 430 mya (Ordovician) Dinosaurs in Hartford 200 mya (Triassic)
Evidence for Evolution Geologic Time Scale Fossil Record Homologous Structures Embryology Molecular Biology
The Fossil Record
Barbellus
A Whale of a Story
Evidence for Evolution Geologic Time Scale Fossil Record Homologous Structures Embryology Molecular Biology
Homologous Structures
Evidence for Evolution Geologic Time Scale Fossil Record Homologous Structures Embryology Molecular Biology
Evolution Replays in the Embryo
Whale Embryos
Evidence for Evolution Geologic Time Scale Fossil Record Homologous Structures Embryology Molecular Biology
Molecular Biology Clues Proteins –Enzymes – amino acid sequences Genetic Material –DNA base sequences Nuclear DNA Mitochondrial DNA
Clues from Cytochrome C 66* HumanPigDuckSnakeTunaMothYeast * Number of base differences in gene coding for Cytochrome C
Darwin’s Dangerous Idea We thus learn that man is descended from a hairy, tailed quadruped, probably arboreal in its habits, and an inhabitant of the Old World. This creature, If its whole structure had been examined by a naturalist, would have been classed amongst the Quadrumana, as surely as the still more ancient progenitor of the Old and New World monkeys. “The Descent of Man”