1. Ch.10: Principles of Evolution

2. Section 1: People Who Influenced Darwin

3. Before Darwin
Most people believed that the Earth was only a few thousand years old, and that it was unchanging
Around the 1700s, these ideas began to change

4. Hutton & Lyell
Believed that geologic features of Earth must have taken a long time to form, therefore Earth must be much older than a few thousand years
Also believed that Earth is and has always been changing
Darwin figured that since the Earth is changing maybe living things change as well

5. Lamarck 1st to come up with a hypothesis about how organisms evolve
Believed that body structures would become larger or smaller due to use or disuse during an organism’s lifetime, & that those acquired traits could be passed to offspring
His hypothesis was wrong, but he was correct in that organisms do adapt to their environments

6. Malthus
Malthus was an economist who said that the human population was growing faster than the food supply, so eventually resources would run out
Darwin believed that this applied even more strongly to plant and animal populations, since they reproduce so much faster than humans

7. Section 2: Darwin’s Observations

8. Variation
Variation is the difference in the physical traits of an individual from those of others
Examples:
Tortoises who live on islands where vegetation is high have high shell edges and long necks to reach food & those who live on islands with low vegetation have short necks & legs
Finches have beaks that matched the food that they eat

9. Adaptation
An adaptation is a feature that allows an organism to better survive in its environment
Adaptations can lead to genetic change in a population over time

10. Darwin’s Evidence
Fossils Darwin found looked similar to living species, suggesting that they could be the ancestors of modern species
Darwin also found fossils of marine organisms in the mountains, suggesting that geologic change was occurring on Earth

11. Section 3: Theory of Natural Selection

12. Artificial Selection
Natural variation exists in all populations & some variation is heritable, meaning it can be passed from one generation to the next
For 100s of years, humans have been using artificial selection - the process by which humans change a species by breeding it for certain traits
Darwin believed that a process similar to artificial selection could happen in nature

13. Darwin Publishes his Theory
Over 20 years after Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle, he received a short essay from Alfred Russel Wallace that summarized all of Darwin’s thoughts about evolution.
This prompted Darwin to publish his own book called On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Natural Selection is the mechanism by which individuals that have inherited beneficial adaptations produce more offspring on average than do other individuals

14. 4 Main Principles of Natural Selection
Variation - natural genetic variation exists in all populations
Overproduction - populations tend to produce more offspring than the environment can sustain, leading to competition for resources

15. Adaptation - some variations allow an individual to better survive & reproduce
Fitness is a measure of the ability to survive and produce more offspring relative to other members of the population
Descent with modification - Over time, natural selection results in changes in a population, as only those with the highest fitness will pass on their genes

16. Natural Selection acts on Phenotypes
Natural selection does NOT create new alleles, genetic mutations do
Natural selection can only act on traits that already exist in a population
As an environment changes, different traits become beneficial

17. Section 4: Evidence of Evolution

18. Darwin’s Evidence
The most important & convincing evidence of evolution comes from fossils, geography, embryology, & anatomy
Fossils - fossil organisms in lower, older layers of rock are more primitive than those in upper, newer layers; this supports descent with modification

19. Geography - Darwin observed that certain plants & animals in the Galapagos Islands were similar but not identical to mainland species
He hypothesized that some individuals from the mainland migrated to the islands & then adapted to each particular island

20. Embryology - similar features of embryos in very different organisms suggests evolution from a distant common ancestor
Ex. vertebrate embryos all have gill slits as embryos, but not as adults

21. Anatomy - comparing body parts of different species provides evidence of evolution
Homologous structures are features that are similar in structure but appear in different organisms & have different functions (suggest a common ancestor)
Analogous structures are structures that perform a similar function but are not similar in origin; they arise due to similar environmental challenges, not common ancestry

22. Structural Patterns & Evolutionary History
Structural patterns are clues to the history of a species
Vestigial structures are remnants of organs or structures that had a function in an early ancestor, but serve little or no function in the present
Ex. pelvic bones & hind limb bones in snakes
Ex. appendix & tail bone in humans

23. Section 5: Evolutionary Biology Today

24. Fossil Record Paleontology was a new science in Darwin’s time
Our fossil record is incomplete, but it does support the theory of evolution
Many transitional fossils have been found that show the change in organisms over time

25. Molecular & Genetic Evidence
DNA Sequence Analysis - The more related two organisms are, the more similar their DNA will be.
Protein Comparisons - Molecular fingerprinting compares similarities among proteins of organisms. Species that have the same proteins most likely come from a common ancestor

26. Evolution Unites all Fields of Biology
All biological fields contribute to evolutionary theory
The theory of natural selection along with genetics is sometimes called the modern synthesis of evolutionary theory
The basic principles of evolution are used in many scientific fields such as medicine, geology, geography, chemistry