Chapter 3:

Evolutionary Biology
By: Varun Ballari

Early Origins
Earth : 4.5 billion years old.
bombarded by intense ultraviolet
radiation.
Around 39 billion years ago,
heavy rains and violent storms basic
inorganic chemical simple organic
molecules complex until amino acids and
nucleic acids formed (organic soup)
protobionts (self replicating structures)
Protobionts are said to be 1st RNA DNA
unicellular organism multicellular
organism

Charles Robert Darwin

Wrote The Original of Species
Proposed theory of evolution by natural
selection
Opposite of Hardy Weinberg Theory

Other Important People

Jean-Baptiste de Lamark suggested that
organisms pass on acquired traits in an
attempt to reach a more perfect form.
Idea of use and disuse

Malthus: idea that there would soon be

insufficient food and living space for the
growing population.
Hutton and Lyell said Earth to be many millions
of years old, older than anyone believed (two
people).

Evolutionary Evidence
The Fossil Record
Biogeography
Comparative Anatomy
Embryology of Ontogeny
Taxonomy
Molecular Biology

Rates of Evolution
Punctuated Equilibrium: change in
organism happen relatively quickly and are
maintained over long periods of time
Molecular Clock Hypothesis: genetic
mutations occur in a genome at a linear
rate
Gradualism: slow evolutionary process

Modes of Selection

Stabilizing selection: type of variation in which extremes

at both ends of phenotype are eliminated, resulting in
less genetic variation
Directional selection: type of variation in which one
extreme is selected against but not the other, so that the
average in the population moves in one direction
Disruptive (diversifying) selection: type of variation which
favors both extremes but selects against the average
Sexual selection: force exhibited by a member of the
same species of the opposite sex
Natural selection: differential survival and reproduction of
individuals based on variation in genetically controlled
traits

Speciation
Pre-zygotic barriers: isolation of species due to ecological,
temporal, behavioral, or mechanical factors, or physiological
incompatibility of gametes
Allopatric speciation: when one population is separated into 2
distinct populations by some geographic barrier such as the
movement of a tectonic plate or the elevation of a mountain range
Parapatric speciation: occurs when 2 populations are able to
interbreed along a border, but the exchange of alles is negligible
compared to the amount of genetic exchange occurring within
each population
Sympatric speciation: occurs when individuals within a population
acquire distinctively different traits while in the same geographic
area
Post-zygotic barriers: ultimate inviability or sterility of hybrid
organisms from the interbreeding of 2 species

Hardy - Weinberg
Large population
Isolated population from immigration and
emigration (no gene flow)
No mutations
No selective breeding & random mating
No genetic drift