Evolution in Extant Populations

Two step process:

Variation must exists among individuals
This variations must be heritable
How organisms vary (not all variation is evolution)
Variation in form
Differentiation of parts: different colors, birds have different songs
Ontogeny: development from fertilized egg to mature form. There is a divergence of form
with longer development time among closely related species
Ambystoma tigrinum – two morphotypes that have different diets and different behavior,
but same genotype
Growth:
Growth by accretion: adding more of the same (bivalved molluscs, tree rings, corals)
Growth by addition: adding new features (Foraminifera – add chambers as they grow, their
coiling is a function of the environment).
Growth by molting: grows in very fast spurts, sheds skin or skeleton –arthropods
Growth by modification: within existing features (epiphyseal growth in mammals)
Isometric growth: only size changes, proportions remain constant
Allometric growth: there is an ontogenic shape change
Sexual dimorphism
Population variation
Geographic variation in deer mouse
Phenotypic plasticity:
nutrition dependent phenotypic plasticity and allometry in some insects
Daphnia longiremis differencence due to presence or absence of predators
Cline: change in particular environmental variable correlates with a variation in a
phenotypic character
Rapid Evolution: stickleback body armor and it’s loss in the absence of predators

Origin of Life

Life
Functional definition: a) process energy separate from environment b) store and process
information c) replication information (reproduction).
Crown group definition: life stems from MRCA of extant organisms.
Reticulate Evolution: horizontal gene transfer (esp in bacteria) – endosymbiosis. Creates
the Web of Life

Age of the Earth:

Banded iron formations: indicate photosynthesis by cyanobacteria – producing oxygen for
later development of oxygen dependent multicellular life.
Late Precambrian glaciation – Snowball Earth
Molecular fossil evidence of origin of life (~3.5by) Bacteria (2.7by), Archaea (2.8by),
Eukarya (2.7by).
Stromatolites produced a lot of oxygen, changed concentration in the atmosphere

Readings:
Palumbi- Humans as the world’s greatest evolutionary force
Rates of human-mediated evolutionary change sometimes exceeds rate of natural evolution
by several orders of magnitude
Ways of slowing down evolution: drug overkill, direct observation therapy, screening for
resistance before treatment, cycling selection of drugs
Lazcano 2010: Historical Development of Origins Research
Adaptation and Diversification on Islands
Adaptive radiation is the outcome of speciation and adaptation in the context of
ecological opportunity.