BIOLOGY AND GEOLOGY 4th ESO IES LOS MOLINOS

Unit 5: Evolution
2011-2012

0. WHAT IS EVOLUTION? Life on Earth is always changing. Just by looking at any group of individuals of any species whether humans, cats or sunowers, for example you can see that individuals are not all the same. How do these dierences arise? Where do different species come from? The cumulative change in the heritable characteristics of individuals is called evolution. Using genetics terms we define evolution as: any change in allele (gene) frequencies in a population over time. But, if we want get a wide view of what evolution means, we need first to define a few basic concepts: 1. BASIC CONCEPTS FOR EVOLUTION Concept of species The species is usually dened as a group of individuals that are capable of interbreeding to produce fertile ospring. There are many more definitions, one of them is the evolutionary species concept, in which a species is a lineage evolving separately from others, this was proposed by GG Simpson to allow fossils to be classified as species as well as living organisms. Population All the organisms that both belong to the same species and they live in the same geographical area. Micro and macroevolution Microevolucin: Changes in the gene frequencies among individuals of the same species over time. Macroevolution: Changes that lead to the formation of new species or taxonomic groups. 2. MECHANISMS OF EVOLUTION Evolution happens because one generation is not exactly as the previous one. There are changes in gene frequencies. Genes frequencies change thanks to a series of processes known as Mechanisms of evolution, which are: Mutation They are mistakes in the DNA duplication process. They happen randomly and they are the only source of brand new characteristics in the gene pool. So they are really the final source of all genetic variation. As we have studied there are point mutations and chromosomal mutations. And if we attend to the effect that they may have we can distinguish between positive, negative and
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neutral mutations, as there are mutations that increase the reproductive rate of the individual, others that reduce it, and some others that have no effect. Mutations may occur in all cells replication but they are only inherited if they occur in the formation of gametes. Recombination As we have studied, during meiosis, homologous chromosomes exchange genes, and separate from one another, so the gametes that they are formed are not exactly the same, this process is called recombination. Recombination does not vary the frequency of any allele in the population but it leads to the formation of new combinations of alleles within a population. Genetic drift This term refers to the random fluctuation in allele frequency between generations as every individual reproduce differently. Natural selection As a result of the previous processes a population is formed by a variety of individuals with different characteristics where some members of a population may be better suited to their surroundings than others. They may have keener eyesight, or have better camouage to avoid predators. These individuals will out-compete others; they will survive better, live longer, and pass on their genes to more ospring. Gradually, as the process is repeated generation after generation, the proportion of these genes in the population as a whole increases. This is called natural selection, and it occurs as the ttest survive to reproduce. Speciation The definition of a species as a group of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations is helpful, but it does have some problems. For example, by this definition a species cannot include populations that can interbreed but do not do so because they are physically isolated from each other. A population of centipedes in the USA, for instance, is clearly not able to interbreed with a population in Europe, even though they would do so if they were brought together. The definition also cannot include any recently dead or fossilized specimens. Organisms that always reproduce asexually do not technically fit the definition of a species, which says that individuals must interbreed. Further problems arise in the case of infertile individuals. Humans who are infertile could be excluded from the human species, strictly speaking, simply because they do not produce offspring! Although the definition states that interbreeding should not happen between different species, sometimes two separate species are able to interbreed and produce hybrids. However, such hybrids are infertile, so the parent organisms are still considered as separate species. Speciation is the process of creating new species. Speciation can only occur if there is a barrier dividing the population. The barrier may take different forms, it is said to be sympatric or allopatric:
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 Allopatric speciation occurs in different geographical areas. Allopatric speciation occurs when a physical barrier separates a species into two geographically isolated populations, which then develop independently under the different conditions in the two separated areas, and eventually become unable to interbreed. The barrier might be a natural feature such as a mountain range or a body of water, or it could be a result of human intervention in an environment, such as a major road system. Sympatric speciation occurs in the same geographical area. In this case the separation may be caused by a variety of differences: - Ecological: 2 populations live in two different habitats and they dont meet. - Temporal: When mating and reproductive stage happens at different times so the two populations do not interbreed - Etological: There is no sexual attraction between individuals Speciation is a key factor to create variation. When two populations are sexually isolated, each one will follow a different path of evolution. 3. EVOLUTION THEORIES Lamarck: The theory of transformation The first theory that tried to explain biological evolution was proposed by Jean Baptiste Lamarck in 1809. His theory stated that evolution was the consequence of organisms adaptation to a changing environment. His proposal said that organisms develop characteristics forced by changes in the environment, and this new characteristics were inherited by its offspring (inheritance of acquired traits). The classic example used to explain Lamarcks theory is the elongated neck of the giraffe. According to Lamarck's theory, a given giraffe could, over a lifetime of straining to reach high branches, develop an elongated neck, which keeps for it whole life and is inherited by its offspring, Giraffes that had acquired long necks would have offspring with long necks rather than the short necks their parents were born with.. A major downfall of his theory was that he could not explain how this might happen, though he discussed a "natural tendency toward perfection." Another example Lamarck used was the toes of water birds. He proposed that from years of straining their toes to swim through water, these birds gained elongated, webbed toes to better their swimming. These two examples demonstrate how use could change a trait. By the same token, Lamarck believed that disuse would cause a trait to become reduced. The wings of penguins, for example, would be smaller than those of other birds because penguins do not use them to fly. Thats why his theory is also called as the theory of use and disuse or simply the theory of transformation. As we know, this type of inheritance, sometimes called Lamarckian inheritance, has since been disproved by the discovery of hereditary genetics. An extension of Lamarck's ideas of inheritance that has stood the test of time, however, is the idea that evolutionary change takes place gradually and constantly. He studied ancient seashells and noticed that the older they were, the simpler they appeared. From this, he concluded that species started out simple and consistently moved toward complexity, or, as he termed it, closer to perfection.
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Darwinism or the theory of natural selection The theory of evolution by means of natural selection was proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace. Darwin explained his ideas in a book called On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, published in 1859. The explanation remains a theory because it can never be completely proved but there is an abundance of evidence to support the key ideas, which are based on the following observations and deductions. Some terms we use now were not used by Darwin, who had no knowledge of genes or alleles. However, the fundamental basis of his argument was the same as outlined here. All organisms are potentially capable of producing large numbers of ospring and far more than the environment can support. Trees can produce thousands of seeds and sh hundreds of eggs. Yet few of these survive to maturity and we rarely see population explosions in an ecosystem. Individuals in a growing population will compete for resources. These may be food, territory or even the opportunity to nd a mate. In addition, predators and disease will take their toll. This competition will bring about a struggle for survival between the members of a population. Organisms that are well adapted to the conditions will be good at competing and will tend to survive, while others die. Dierent members of the same species are all slightly dierent and this variation is due to the mechanism of sexual reproduction. The process of meiosis produces haploid gametes and furthermore the genes in the gametes an individual produces may be present in dierent forms or alleles. When an egg is fertilized, the zygote contains a unique combination of genetic material from its two parents. Sexual reproduction gives an enormous source of genetic diversity, which gives rise to a wide variation within the individuals of a species. As a result of variation, some members of a population may be better suited to their surroundings than others. They may have keener eyesight, or have better camouage to avoid predators. These individuals will out-compete others; they will survive better, live longer, and pass on their genes to more ospring. Gradually, as the process is repeated generation after generation, the proportion of these genes in the population as a whole increases. This is called natural selection, and it occurs as the ttest survive to reproduce. Industrial melanism The peppered moth (Biston betularia) is a night-ying moth that rests during the day on the bark of trees, particularly on branches that are covered with greygreen lichen. It is a light speckled grey, and relies on camouage against the tree branches to protect it from predatory birds. In Britain in the mid-19th century, a black form of the moth was noticed. The appearance of this new colour coincided with the period of the industrial revolution when many factories were built and contributed to growing pollution in the atmosphere. This pollution killed the lichens that grow on the bark of trees, which became blackened with particles of soot. The colour of the moth is due to a single gene, which can be present in two forms. The common recessive form gives rise to a light speckled colour. The much less common dominant form gives rise to the black, melanic moth. In the polluted areas, the speckled form was no longer camouaged on the blackened tree bark, and was easily seen by birds that ate speckled moths. The black moths were better suited to the
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changed environment as they were camouaged. Black moths survived and bred and the proportion of black moths with the dominant allele grew in the population. In 1956, the Clean Air Act became law in Britain and restricted air pollution. Lichen grew back on trees and their bark became lighter. As a consequence, the speckled form of the peppered moth has increased in numbers again in many areas, and the black form has become less frequent. Natural selection does not always cause change Natural selection ensures that the organisms which are best adapted to their environment will survive. Change will occur if the environment changes, or if a new mutation appears which adapts the organism better to the existing environment. Most of the time, natural selection tends to keep populations very much the same from generation to generation. This is called stabilizing selection. The organism is well adapted to environment, the environment stays the same, and then the population tends to grow. But if the environment changes in a particular way, then the populations tends to change in a particular way, called directional selection. If this selection leads to the formation of two different populations, then is called Diversifying selection. Convergent and divergent evolution As the process of speciation takes place, new species form that no longer resemble one another. When this occurs, species are said to have diverged from their common ancestor in a process known as divergent evolution. New species evolve as organisms exploit new habitats and reduce competition by occupying their own specific niche. Over generations, physical and behavioural adaptations develop through natural selection that help organisms survive and reproduce in their particular habitat. An example of divergent evolution is the pentadactyl limb of vertebrates. Adaptive radiation is a form of divergent evolution, and occurs as new species develop from a common ancestor as they adapt to new environments. Darwins finches on the Galapagos Islands are a good example of adaptive radiation. The ancestral finch species that first arrived on the islands had a small but thick beak for eating small seeds. On the various different Galapagos Islands many other food sources were available such as buds, insects, fruits, seeds of different sizes, grubs in rotting wood. Any birds with beaks that were a slightly different shape, making them better at using a new food source, would be more likely to survive and pass on that beak shape to their o spring. The change in beak shape would be reinforced with every new generation, eventually producing different groups of birds that were well adapted to feeding on the new foods. In other situations, organisms that have different ancestors may evolve similar characteristics, because conditions favour these particular features they make it more likely that an organisms will survive and reproduce successfully in that environment. This is known as convergent evolution. An example is the wing of a bat and the wing of an insect. The wings serve similar functions but they are derived from completely different structures. Bats and insects are not closely related.

Gradualism and punctuated equilibrium theory Darwin viewed evolution as a slow, steady process called gradualism, whereby changes slowly accumulated over many generations and led to speciation. For many species, this seems to be true. A good example of gradualism is the evolution of the horses limbs, which fossils indicate took around 43 million years to change from the ancestral form to the modern one. In some cases, the fossil record does not contain any intermediate stages between one species and another. A suggested explanation is that fossilisation is such a rare event that the intermediate fossils have simply not been discovered. In 1972, Stephen J Gould (1941 2002) and Niles Eldredge (b. 1943) suggested that the fossils had not been found because they did not exist, and proposed an additional mechanism for evolution called punctuated equilibrium. The driving force for evolution is selection pressure, so if the selection pressure is very mild or non-existent then species will tend to remain the same that is, in equilibrium. When there is a sudden, dramatic change in the environment, there will also be new, intense selection pressures and therefore rapid development of new Species. Following this idea we may say that microevolution flows slowly through generations until a big change in the environment happens and then a macroevolution event occurs, there is a discontinuity between macro and microevolution. A good example of intense selection pressure in modern times is the use of antibiotics, which has resulted in the appearance of resistant species of bacteria in very short periods of time. Multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an example of a bacterial pathogen resistant to several antibiotics. It has become adapted to new conditions in which there are many antibiotics in use and has developed new strategies to resist them.

4. WHAT EVIDENCE IS THERE FOR EVOLUTION? The fossil record Fossils, are the preserved remains of organisms that lived a long time ago. They are often formed from the hard parts of organisms, such as shell, bone or wood. Minerals seep into these tissues and, over time, deposit and harden. As the living tissue decays, the minerals form a replica that remains behind. Soft tissue can sometimes be preserved in the same way, as can footprints and animal droppings. Most fossils become damaged or are crushed through land or sea movement, but some are remarkably well preserved. The earliest fossils date from over three billion years ago, so the time scale of the fossil record is immense. Most fossils are of species that died out long ago, because they did not adapt to new environmental conditions. The study of fossils is called palaeontology. Palaeontologists have been collecting and classifying fossils for over two hundred years, but they have only been able to date them since the 1940s. Scientists do this by studying the amount of radioactivity in fossils. Over time, the amount of radioactivity decreases. This is because the reactive elements decay, so there is less radioactive material left. The rate of decay is xed for each element, so it is possible to date fossils by measuring the amount of
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radioactivity in each specimen. Carbon-14 is used to study material up to 60 000 years old. For older material, other elements are used. Although the fossil record is incomplete and fossils are very rare, it is possible to show how modern plants and animals might have evolved from previous species that existed hundreds or thousands of millions of years ago. For example, fossil sequences suggest how modern horses may have evolved from earlier species. It is important to recognise, though, that we can never say that this species evolved into that species, based on a fossil sequence even when we have many fossils. All that we can say is that they appear to be related that they probably share a common ancestor. Other species could well have existed too, for which no fossils have ever been found. A few organisms seem to have changed very little. The horseshoe crab we see today is very similar to fossil specimens a million years old. This would seem to suggest that there has been little selection pressure on these crabs. Observations of fossils provide evidence that life on Earth changes and that many of the changes occur over millions of years. Selective breeding Further evidence for the way evolution might have occurred comes from observations of selective breeding. In this process, plants or animals with favourable characteristics are bred to increase their numbers in a population. Humankind has been domesticating and breeding plants and animals for thousands of years. Modern varieties of wheat produce higher yields and are shorter and stronger than varieties of a hundred years ago, and these in turn have many dierences from the grasses that wheat was originally bred from 10 000 years ago. Similarly, farmers and animal breeders may look for favourable characteristics in a cow or a sheep, such as milk yield or quality of wool, and then use individuals displaying these characteristics to breed more animals with the same features. Although the driving force for articial selection is human intervention, which is quite dierent from natural evolution, selective or articial breeding does show that species can change over time. Homologous and Analogous structures Further evidence for evolution is provided by homologous structures, which are anatomical features showing similarities in shape or function in dierent organisms. Their presence suggests that the species possessing them are closely related and derived from a common ancestor. A good example is the vertebrate pentadactyl limb. This is found in a large range of animals including bats, whales and humans. In each group, limbs have the same general structure and arrangement of bones but each one is adapted for dierent uses. Bird wings and reptile limbs are also homologous structures. Even though a bird uses its wings for ying and reptiles use their limbs for walking, they share a common arrangement of bones.

Analogous structures pertain to the various structures in different species having the same appearance, structure or function but have evolved separately, thus do not share common ancestor. Examples of analogous structures include: wings of insects and birds used for flying, jointed legs of insects and vertebrates used for locomotion, fins of fish and flippers of whales (mammals)