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The lowest and most level land areas show us, especially when we dig there to
very great depths, nothing but horizontal layers of material more or less varied,
which almost all contain innumerable products of the sea.
- Georges Cuvier
Introduction
Scientific theories are often comprised by:
A natural pattern and
A process that explains that pattern
Introduction
Pattern: brown algae grow higher in the
intertidal than red algae
Process: desiccation stress excludes red
algae from growing higher
Introduction
1858: Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel
Wallace proposed a theory of evolution
i.e. species have changed through time
Introduction
1858: Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel
Wallace proposed a theory of evolution
i.e. species have changed through time
Introduction
Darwin and Wallaces theory
revolutionized scientific thought by
overturning the idea that species were
specially (rather than naturally) created
This idea had dominated organismal thinking
for over 2000 years
Binomial nomenclature =
two word species designation
composed of a genus and
species epithet (ex: Homo
sapiens)
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James Hutton
Charles Lyell
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Enter Darwin:
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Darwin/Wallace
Evolution by Natural Selection
Change in species through time does not
follow a linear, progressive pattern but
instead is based on variation among
individuals in populations
Population = individuals of the same species
that are living in the same area at the same
time
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Darwin/Wallace
Evolution by Natural Selection
Natural selection: individuals with
adaptations will survive better and leave
more offspring
Adaptation = a heritable trait that increases
an individual's biological fitness in a particular
environment relative to individuals lacking
that trait
Darwins Observations
Through these steps, selected traits increase in frequency in the
population from one generation to the next, causing evolution a
change in the genetic characteristics of a population over time
Modern biologists condense Darwins four steps into the following:
Evolution by natural selection occurs when heritable variation leads
to differential success in survival and reproduction
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Darwins Observations
Observed during artificial selection = species modification
over generations by selective breeding for desired traits
Leads to the domestication of plants and animals (i.e.
crops and pets)
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Which moth is
more fit?
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Which moth is
more fit?
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Darwin/Wallace
Evolution by Natural Selection
The theory of evolution by natural selection
was revolutionary because:
1.It overturned the idea that species are static and
unchanging
2. It was also scientific. It proposed a mechanism
that could account for change through time and
made predictions that could be tested through
observation and experimentation
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Darwin/Wallace
Evolution by Natural Selection
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/opinio
n/the-animated-life-of-arwallace.html?_r=0
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Fraction of parent
isotope remaining
Accumulating
daughter
isotope
2
Remaining
parent
isotope
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2014 Pearson Education, Inc.; Fig. 25.6
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2
3
Time (half-lives)
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Fossils: Limitations
While the fossil record is extensive, it is still incomplete
Not all organisms die in the right place at the right
time to be preserved as a fossil
Fossils that have formed could be destroyed by
geological processes
Not all fossils have
been found
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Fossils: Limitations
The fossil record is biased in favor of species that:
Existed a long time
Were abundant and widespread in certain
environments
Had hard shells, skeletons,
or other parts that
facilitated fossilization
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Mantle
Outer
core
Inner
core
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Juan de Fuca
Plate
North
American
Plate
Caribbean
Plate
Cocos Plate
Pacific
Plate
Nazca
Plate
South
American
Plate
Scotia Plate
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Eurasian Plate
Philippine
Plate
Arabian
Plate
Indian
Plate
African
Plate
Antarctic
Plate
Australian
Plate
Present
Collision of
India with
Eurasia
Cenozoic
45 mya
Eurasia
Africa
65.5 mya
South
America
India
Madagascar
Present-day
continents
Antarctica
251 mya
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Paleozoic
135 mya
Mesozoic
Laurasia
Laurasia and
Gondwana
landmasses
The supercontinent
Pangaea
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Digit-bearing
limbs
Amnion
Lizards
and snakes
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Homologous
characteristic
Crocodiles
Ostriches
Feathers
Hawks and
other birds
Birds
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6
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Amniotes
Mammals
Tetrapods
Amphibians
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Resistance to Antibiotics:
M. tuberculosis
The bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis
causes tuberculosis (TB)
Sanitation, nutrition, and antibiotics such as
rifampin greatly reduced deaths due to TB in
industrialized nations between 1950 and about
1990
However, in the late 1980s,
rates of TB started to
surge due to the evolution
of drug-resistant strains
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