1. Macroevolution The result of repeated speciation events Evidences
From Comparative Anatomy
From the Fossil Record
From Biochemistry
From Biogeography

2. Macroevolution evidences from the field of comparative anatomy
Congruence of anatomical features
Vestigial structures
Homology
Living intermediates
Von Baer’s Law

3. Congruence of anatomical features
Shared features of 2 species which are derived from common ancestry should be numerous.
If two species are not from a shared ancestry then there is no particular reason for them to share an abundance of anatomical features.

4. Vestigial Structures
Anatomical features which serve no function, or are more of a liability than a help. Thought to be passed down from an ancestor in which the feature served a beneficial purpose.
Examples – whale hipbones, eyes of blind cavefish, ear moving muscles of humans

5. Homologous Structures
Anatomical features which have the same developmental origin, but have a variety of developmental outcomes.
Example – The limb bud of the vertebrate becomes bird wing, bat wing, whale flipper, horse leg, and human arm.

6. Living intermediates
Any species or taxon which has anatomical features that are considered similar to an ancestral group linking two dissimilar taxa.
Examples – Hemichordates have features linking echinoderms and chordates. Peripatus has features linking annelids and arthropods.

7. Von Baer’s Law
features common to all members of major phylogenetic group of animals develop earlier in ontogeny than do features that distinguish subdivisions of the group

8. Evidences for macroevolution from the field of paleontology
Confirmation of fossil age
Strata sequence
Isotope dating
Index fossils
Missing links

9. Concept of superposition

10. Fossil Succession

11. Volcanic events and dating rocks

13. Index fossils – rock beds with similar fossils are assumed to be approximately from the same age. If the age of one bed is known the matching beds are assigned the same age until proven otherwise.

14. Missing links are extinct forms that share features from two separate phylogenetic lines.

15. Evidences for macroevolution from the field of biochemistry
Proteins
immunotaxonomy
electrophoresis
amino acid sequence
DNA
DNA – DNA hybridization
nucleic acid sequence

16. Evidence for macroevolution from the field of biogeography
Continental drift and phylogenetic lines
Taxa and their geographic radiations
Islands, refugia and speciation

17. Continental Separations
Pangea (triassic,220my)
Laurasia – Gondwana (jurassic, 160my)
N. America, Europe, Asia, S. America, Antarctica, Australia, Africa, India (cretaceaous, 100my)
New Land Bridges – Berringea, DeGeer/Thule passages, panamanian connection, Middle Eastern

29. Radiation of Taxa
Regions of endemism may show a greater variety of taxon subgroups via repeated speciation events.
Regions more distant from an endemic center often have fewer taxon subgroups present.

31. Islands, refugia and speciation
Fragmented populations, located in refugia of suitable habitat or on islands, speciate and form recognizable subgroups.