5.

1 Evidence for evolution

Darwin and Wallace
• Charles Darwin, 22, travelled on board the HMS Beagle for a scientific exploration mission in
1831 for 5 years.

• There he was able to see the world in a new way ad came up with evolution by natural selection.

• In 1858 Darwin found out that Alfred Russel Wallace also had developed a similar theory.

• Both presented their ideas jointly to the Linnaean society in 1858.

Evolution
Evolution = the process of cumulative change in the heritable characteristics of a population.

If enough changes occur in a population over time, a new species can arise in a process called
speciation.

Three phenomena providing evidence for evolution by natural selection:

• The fossil record

• Animal breeding

• Homologous structures

The fossil record and evolution

Fossils = petrified remains or traces of animals and plants.

• They have made it possible for us to somewhat see how life on Earth was like
thousands/millions of years ago.

Fossil record = the accumulation of evidence from these remains and traces.

• Ex. skeletons and footprints.

Palaeontologists have been collecting and classifying fossils in an organized way for almost 2
centuries now.

Palaeontologists have discovered a few things, providing evidence for Earth’s evolutionary past.

• When classifying fossils by age, we can see that life that existed more than 500 million years
ago was vastly different in appearance compared to life today.

• Although Earth has had extensive oceans for most of its existence, fish fossils found in rocks
have are only 500 million years old or younger.

• This is less than 15% of the 3.5 billion year existence of life on Earth.

• Oceans must have come before fish and that the fish must have evolved from something
else.
 • Although most top predators today are mammals, none of them existed at the time of
the dinosaurs or before.

• With the exception of certain types of sharks, roaches, ferns, the majority of living
organisms today have no similar form in the fossil record.

By studying fossils, we can see that life on Earth is constantly changing.

Most of these changes have occurred over huge timescales, hundreds of thousands/millions of years.

Ageing fossils
The age of a rock can be determined by examining differences in the ratios of isotopes.

• Isotopes = versions of an atom that is heavier or lighter than other versions of the same
atom.

• Isotopes of the same atom have the same number of protons but the number of neutrons
can differ. This causes the difference in mass.

• Ex. carbon-14 and carbon-12.

Carbon-14
• Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope that slowly loses its radioactivity over time.

• A fossil with high levels of carbon-14 = younger than one with very low levels of carbon-14.

• As carbon-14 gives off its radioactivity, it changes its identity to nitrogen-14.

• One radioactive parent isotope changing into a stable daughter isotope is called
decay.

Half-life of an isotope
Half-life = the time taken for half of the parent isotope to decay into a stable daughter isotope.

• Half-life of carbon-14 = 5730 years.

Looking at the ratio between

radioactive carbon-14 and stable
nitrogen-14, the age of the fossil can
be determined.

Difficult to determine the age after a

certain number of half-lives.

• But, there are other radioactive

isotopes with longer half-lives.
ex. potassium-40
Artificial selection and evolution:
• The science of breeding domesticated animals, such cattle, horses, dogs, and sheep, is
another excellent indicator of recent changes in heritable traits.

• The meat and milk that are readily available to us now are considerably different from what
was produced a few generations ago.

• For example, cows have been bred to have a straight back for easier birthing and long legs
for milking by mechanical pumps.

Evolution of homologous structure by adaptive radiation:

• Homologous anatomical structures, which share a similar form yet are present in seemingly
unrelated species, provide more proof of evolution.

• The five-fingered limb, which is present in a wide range of creatures, including humans,
whales, and bats, is one of the most obvious examples of this. Such limbs are called
pentadactyl limbs because "dactyl" refers to fingers and "penta" means five.

• The general structure is the same, regardless of the fact that the individual functions of the
limbs may change greatly in shape and number.

• According to Darwin, the species in question share an ancestry, thus similar structures are
not just a coincidence.

• The fundamental shape and location of the limb bones are the same, regardless of size or
morphology. This would imply that all species with five fingers have a common ancestry.

Species divergence
Two or more species diverge from a common ancestor and evolve indpendently & uniquely

Impossible to produce offsprings

This process is known as speciation

The dog, wolf and fox have common ancestors but can not breed and produce offsprings

Adaptive radiation
• Process in which similar but distinct species evolve rapidly from an ancestral species radiating
to other different areas of habitat.

• A new species can evolve due to a barrier separating populations or natural selection

• Example: primates found in Madagascar and Comoro islands. Without competition from
monkeys and apes they were able to increase rapidly, allowing greater chance of diversity
Continuous variation and the concept of gradual divergence
• Continuous variation is a type of genetic variation in which a particular character trait shows
an unbroken range of phenotypes it measures things like height and weight

• Gradual divergence is the splitting of species over time which cause greater diversity
between the species.

• There are cases where the polygenetic tree becomes so spaced apart that the species that
were once closely related do not physically resemble each other anymore.

• Darwin´s finches with different sized beaks were quite similar but due to environmental
differences they evolved to suit their habitat.

Transient Polymorphism
• In a population of species there is more than one form that is common, these different
variations of a species are called polymorphisms it is caused by a mutation

• Two alternate alleles of a given locus, one of those alleles is gradually replaced by another
which results in the mutated form.

• A prime example of this is the peppered moth, it can have either a peppered gray for or a
melanic black form which is a rare mutation that affects less than 1% of the population

• The grey form is well camouflaged against the lichen covered trees while the black form
stands out against the trees and is more likely to get eaten by birds.

• During the industrial revolution the melanic peppered moth was increasing in numbers
because lichen is sensitive to air pollution which was produced a lot during the industrial
revolution, and that caused the lichen to die. The air was also filled with soot from coal and
that covered the lichen free tree turning them black which enabled better camouflage for
the melanic moth which caused the camouflage of the grey moth to fail causing them to be
eaten by birds.