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Reflection
Tyrell Reiman
Anthropology 1020
3/25/18
Marisa Maughan
Reflection 2
Reflection
Over the course of the semester the Theory of Evolution has been a main point
throughout each chapter building on everything we have learned so far. I already believed in the
theory of evolution, but this course gave me more of an understanding into the theory and how it
has affected species. Some of the biggest take-aways for me have been how Darwin and Mendel
each made key discoveries about evolution and built the foundations for the modern theory, also
how genetics has had such a profound effect on evolution, and the traits and tools that non-
human primates, such as the chimpanzee, use are similar to our ancestors.
With Darwin coming up with the theory of natural selection it laid out the foundations on
how species adapt to their environments. He did this through observing birds on an island during
a voyage he was on and how the population adapted to their environments on the island. He
noticed that the beaks of the birds were different depending on the environment they were in.
Then Mendel demonstrated how traits are passed on from generation to generation. To show this
he breeds pee plants for hundreds of generations and noticed that some traits were passed on
while others weren’t. For me, these were a big moment in the class because it showed me how
traits and adaptations happened. I found it amazing how much we have adapted to our
environment from skin pigmentation to being biped and how those adaptations have been passed
on to future generations.
Genetics
Then, learning about genetics was truly an eye opener on how the traits are passed on to
future generations through dominant and recessive genes. The only source of new genetic
variation in a population is mutations. Evolution must act on the mutation to promote survival
Reflection 3
and reproduction to be passed on more frequently. Through this I learned that a mutation is very
important in creating a new species like humans. A good example of this is sickle cell anemia
with AA, AS, and SS. People that have AA are normal people and have a homozygous
configuration. Then people with AS have sickle cell anemia but only have minor side effects.
Finally, SS people would have died before reproductive age without modern medicine. Then if
we look at malaria and sickle cell anemia the AS gene is more advantageous because they don’t
contract malaria or if they do they suffer less. Through genetics and the theory of evolution this
genotype has been passed on to generations where malaria is an epidemic but outside of malarial
environments the S allele was never advantageous, so it wasn’t passed on. This demonstrates
how natural selection has acted upon a more desirable trait in certain areas. To me this was
significant in the fact that we could see how it has affected us as a species.
Finally, looking at the behaviors and tool use of nonhuman primates we can gain insight
into how our ancestors were. Being able to learn how chimpanzees make and use tools was of
great importance for me because it shows how our ancestors evolved. It gives us great insight
into the ways we learned and adapted to our environments. By looking at the behavior of
nonhuman primates we can also see how our ancestor might have behaved and the social culture
we came from. Through learning these ideas we can identify how we evolved.
Conclusion
Overall, the theory of evolution has shown me how species evolve and by the means that
they do. Through mutations species can evolve into new ones. Then species adapting to
environment plays an important role in evolution and how those traits are passed on. I have
gained a great appreciation for the theory of evolution and a greater understanding of it.