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Biogenesis
Honors Biology
Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)
• Proposed the theory of
spontaneous generation
• Also called abiogenesis
• Idea that living things can arise
from nonliving matter
• Idea lasted almost 2000 years
Early Science
• For centuries, people based their
beliefs on their interpretations of
what they saw going on in the world
around them without testing their
ideas
• They didn’t use the scientific
method to arrive at answers to
their questions
• Their conclusions were based on
untested observations
Example of Observations
Microorganisms
Disproving
Spontaneous
Generation
Francesco Redi (1668)
• In 1668,
Francesco Redi,
an Italian
physician, did an
experiment with
flies and wide-
mouth jars
containing meat
Redi’s Experiment
• Redi used open & closed flasks
which contained meat.
• His hypothesis was that rotten
meat does not turn into flies.
• He observed these flasks to see
in which one(s) maggots would
develop.
Redi’s (1626-1697) Experiments
Mr. Velázquez
Biology
Evidence Pro and Con
• 1668: Francisco Redi filled six jars
with decaying meat.
Conditions: Results:
3 jars covered with fine net - No maggots
3 open jars - Maggots appeared
Conditions: Results:
Nutrient broth No microbial
placed in flask, growth
heated, then
sealed
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
Evidence Pro and Con
• 1861: Louis Pasteur demonstrated
that microorganisms are present in
the air.
Conditions: Results:
Nutrient broth placed Microbial growth
in flask, heated, not
sealed
Nutrient broth placed No microbial growth
in flask, heated, then
sealed
Spontaneous generation or biogenesis?
Evolution
• Biological evolution
• Descent with modification
• small-scale evolution
– (changes in gene frequency in a population from
one generation to the next)
• large-scale evolution
– (the descent of different species from a common
ancestor over many generations).
Chemical Evolution
Organic Evolution
• Sequence of events involved in the
evolutionary development of a species or
taxonomic group of organisms
Aerobic heterotrophs &
Photosynthetic autotrophs
Lamarck
• 1801
• Theory of Acquired
Characteristics
• Elephants
• Humans
• Giraffes
• Evolution is a
predestined plan
• Results decided
Darwin
• Organisms are all
different
• Those with variations
which help them
survive in their
environment will
survive & reproduce
• Those that aren’t able
to adapt to their
environment die off
• No plan for evolution
Darwin
• Natural Selection
– Species that have adapted characteristics which
are favorable to their environment pass those
adaptations on to their offspring
• Survival of the fittest
– individuals adapted to environment will
survive…speciation…changes to a species over
time
– Survival of the fittest is meant in terms of the
environment…
– Basis for Natural Selection or how evolution
occurs over time
Types of Selection
• Stabilizing Selection
– Favors average phenotype and selects against the extreme
– Seen with mice and robins
• Disruptive / Diversifying Selection
– Select for two or more phenotypes which have an
advantage
– Intermediate phenotypes are less fit than extremes
– Seen in species with multiple male mating partners
(lobster)
• Directional Selection
– Selection for one end of spectrum or the other based on
environmental changes
– Peppered moths
Mechanisms of Change
• Mutation
• A mutation could cause parents with genes for bright green
coloration to have offspring with a gene for brown coloration.
• That would make genes for brown coloration more frequent
in the population than they were before the mutation.
Mechanisms for Change
• Migration
• Some individuals from a population of brown beetles might
have joined a population of green beetles.
• That would make genes for brown coloration more frequent in
the green beetle population than they were before the brown
beetles migrated into it.
Mechanisms for Change
• Genetic Drift
• Imagine that in one generation, two brown beetles
happened to have four offspring survive to reproduce.
• Several green beetles were killed when someone
stepped on them and had no offspring.
• The next generation would have a few more brown
beetles than the previous generation — but just by
chance.
• These chance changes from generation to generation are
known as genetic drift.
Courtship Rituals
• Sexual Dimorphism
• Males v Females
Types of equilibrium
• Punctuated
• Gradualism
• Catastrophism
Punctuated Equilibrium
• Once species
appear in the
fossil record they
will become
stable, showing
little net
evolutionary
change for most
of their geological
history.
Gradualism
• slow accumulation of subtle changes
Catastrophism