Science 11

EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCES

Quarter 2, Week 6

Name of Learner: _________________ Score: ________

Section: _________________________ Date: _________

Learning Competencies:
1. Explain how populations of organisms have changed and continue to change over time
showing patterns of descent with modification from common ancestors to produce the
organismal diversity observed today. (S11/12LT-IVfg-26)
2. Describe how the present system of classification of organisms is based on evolutionary
relationships (S11/12LT-IVfg-27)

LESSON 6 EVOLUTION AND CLASSIFICATION

Defining Population and Evolution

Population is the number of organisms of the same species that live in a

particular geographic area at the same time, with the capability of interbreeding.

What is evolution? According to our friend Merriam Webster Evolution is a descent with
modification from preexisting species: cumulative inherited change in a population of
organisms through time leading to the appearance of new forms : the process by which new
species or populations of living things develop from preexisting forms through successive
generations

It is also the scientific theory explaining the appearance of new species and varieties
through the action of various biological mechanisms (such as natural selection, genetic
mutation or drift, and hybridization)

Evolution is a combination of descent with modification and natural selection.

Descent with modification is the evolutionary mechanism that produces change in the
genetic code of living organisms. There are four mechanisms for such changes.

Four Mechanisms

1. Mutation is the process in which genes change randomly due to accidental damage or
external factors. Mutation is the classic gene-changing process in which the offspring inherit
changed genes due to mistakes in the gene copying process, broken chromosomes carrying
the genes or external influences that damage genes. The offspring will have a slightly different
genetic code than the parents, and they will therefore have new or changed features. For
example, green beetle parents may experience a mutation and produce a brown beetle
offspring

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SOURCE: https://sciencing.com/difference-between-natural-selection-descent-modification-
17942.html

Mutations can be point or gene mutation or chromosomal mutation.

Causes of Mutations

Errors in DNA Replication - On very, very rare occasions DNA polymerase will incorporate a
non-complementary base into the daughter strand. During the next round of replication the mis
incorporated base would lead to a mutation. This, however, is very rare as the exonuclease
functions as a proofreading mechanism recognizing mismatched base pairs and excising
them.

Errors in DNA Recombination - DNA often rearranges itself by a process called

recombination which proceeds via a variety of mechanisms. Occasionally DNA is lost during
replication leading to a mutation.

Chemical Damage to DNA - Many chemical mutagens, some exogenous, some man-made,
some environmental, are capable of damaging DNA. Many chemotherapeutic drugs and
intercalating agent drugs function by damaging DNA.

Radiation - Gamma rays, X-rays, even UV light can interact with compounds in the cell
generating free radicals which cause chemical damage to DNA.

2. Genetic drift is the change in the frequency of particular genes due to random changes in
the population.

Genetic drift is a random change in the number of occurrences of a particular characteristic.

For example, in a group of mixed green and brown beetles most of the brown beetles may
have been on the side of the group close to a bird and might have been eaten. The population
then has more green beetles.

The bottleneck effect is an extreme example of genetic drift that happens when the size of a
population is severely reduced. Events like natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, fires) can
decimate a population, killing most individuals and leaving behind a small, random assortment
of survivors.

The founder effect is another extreme example of drift, one that occurs when a small group of
individuals breaks off from a larger population to establish a colony. The new colony is isolated
from the original population, and the founding individuals may not represent the full genetic
diversity of the original population. That is, alleles in the founding population may be present at
different frequencies than in the original population, and some alleles may be missing
altogether. The founder effect is similar in concept to the bottleneck effect, but it occurs via a
different mechanism (colonization rather than catastrophe).

Source: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/her/heredity-and-genetics/a/genetic-
drift-founder-bottleneck

3. Migration which cause gene flow, which is the change in the genetic pool due to shifting
populations.

Gene flow — also called migration — is any movement of individuals, and/or the genetic
material they carry, from one population to another. If gene versions are carried to a
population where those gene versions previously did not exist, gene flow can be a very
important source of genetic variation.

For example, brown beetles of a certain type may migrate to join a population of green
beetles. The resultant population will have a mix of brown and green beetles.

4. Natural selection is the fourth evolutionary mechanism, and it is the "survival of the fittest"
process in which the organisms whose changes are best suited to their environment survive
and reproduce while the others die or reproduce less.

The process of natural selection may be summarized as follows:

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A. Overproduction: More offspring are produced than can survive to reproductive maturity.
Darwin realized that the environment limits the populations of all organisms by causing deaths
or limiting births.

B. Genetic Variation: Individuals in a population have different traits and variations.

Organisms display certain variations in all aspects of their biology and behavior; these
variations are hereditary; individuals inherit them from their parents and pass them on to their
descendants; these hereditary variations can have positive or negative effects on survival and
reproduction, depending on the environment in which the organism lives;

C. Struggle to Survive: Individuals compete with one another for limited resources.
Competition and certain favorable characteristics determine which organisms survive. Those
individuals that display the variations that are the most favorable in their environment will live
longer and leave more descendants who also possess these variations.

Adaptation is a feature that is common in a population because it provides some improved

function. Adaptations are well fitted to their function and are produced by natural selection.
Adaptation is the biological mechanism by which organisms adjust to new environments or to
changes in their current environment.

1. Biological adaptation physical change in an organism that results over time in

reaction to its environment. The creosote bush is a desert-dwelling plant that produces
toxins that prevent other plants from growing nearby, thus reducing competition for
nutrients and water.

2. Behavioral adaptation, way an organism acts in order to survive or thrive in its

environment. Mimicry of leaves by insects is an adaptation for evading predators.
Echolocation in bats is an adaptation for catching insects.

D. Differential reproduction: Those organisms with the best characteristics (adaptations) are
most likely to survive and reproduce. As a result these favorable traits are passed to future
offspring with greater frequency. After many generations, these favorable variations will be
found in all individuals in the population.

Patterns of evolution

1. Convergent evolution - is the process in which species that are not closely related to each
other independently evolve similar kinds of traits. For example, dragonflies, hawks, and bats all
have wings. None of these organisms owes its wings to genes inherited from any of the others.
Each kind of wing evolved independently, suggesting that the trait of flight is a useful one for
the purpose of survival and reproduction. These independently evolved wings are called
analogous structures.

2. Divergent evolution - is the process in which a trait held by a common ancestor evolves
into different variations over time. A common example of divergent evolution is the vertebrate
limb. Whale flippers, frog forelimbs, and your own arms most likely evolved from the front
flippers of an ancient jawless fish. Because they share a common evolutionary origin, these
are examples of homologous structures.

An important consequence of divergent evolution is speciation, the divergence of one species

into two or more descendant species. Speciation is the process of formation of a new
genetically independent group of organisms, called species, through the course of evolution.

Speciation occurs in two ways.

1. Transformation of old species into new species over time.

2. Splitting of a single species into several, that is the multiplication of species.

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There are four major ways speciation can occur:

• Allopatric speciation occurs when a population becomes separated into two entirely
isolated subpopulations. Once the separation occurs, natural selection and genetic drift
operate on each subpopulation independently, producing different evolutionary
outcomes.

• Peripatric speciation is somewhat similar to allopatric speciation, but specifically

occurs when a very small subpopulation becomes isolated from a much larger majority.
Because the isolated subpopulation is so small, divergence can happen relatively
rapidly due to the founder effect, in which small populations are more sensitive to
genetic drift and natural selection acts on a small gene pool.

• Parapatric speciation occurs when a small subpopulation remains within the habitat
of an original population but enters a different niche. Effects other than physical
separation prevent interbreeding between the two separated populations. Because one
of the genetically isolated populations is so small, however, the founder effect can still
play a role in speciation.

• Sympatric speciation, the rarest and most controversial form of speciation, occurs
with no form of isolation (physical or otherwise) between two populations.

3. Parallel evolution - is sometimes difficult to distinguish from convergent evolution. Parallel

evolution occurs when different species start with similar ancestral origins, then evolve similar
traits over time. This kind of thing happens because the two different species, though they
don’t necessarily share a common ancestor, experience similar kinds of environmental
pressures and survive only by undergoing similar adaptations. A classic example of parallel
evolution is found among plants, in which several similar but distinct forms of leaf evolved in
parallel and are evident today.

4. Coevolution - occurs when closely interacting species exert selective pressures on each
other, so that they evolve together in a kind of conversation of adaptations. Examples of
coevolution are common among predator-prey and host-parasite pairs. More picturesque
examples of coevolution occur among hummingbirds and the flowers from which they seek
nectar and unwittingly pollinate.

Source: https://www.dummies.com/education/science/different-patterns-of-evolution/

For the second competency let us see the evolutionary relationships and classification
of organisms.

One of the bases for modern taxonomy is evolutionary relationship.

Most modern systems of classification are based on evolutionary relationships among

organisms – that is, on the organisms’ phylogeny. Classification systems based on phylogeny
organize species or other groups in ways that reflect our understanding of

how they evolved from their common ancestors. When we draw a phylogenetic tree, we are
representing our best hypothesis about how a set of species (or other groups) evolved from a
common ancestor. Each branch point (also called an internal node) represents a divergence
event, or splitting apart of a single group into two descendant groups.

At each branch point lies the most recent common ancestor of all the groups descended from
that branch point. For instance, at the branch point giving rise to species A and B, we would
find the most recent common ancestor of those two species. At the branch point right above
the root of the tree, we would find the most recent common ancestor of all the species in the
tree (A, B, C, D, E).

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In a phylogenetic tree, the relatedness of two species has a very specific meaning. Two
species are more related if they have a more recent common ancestor, and less related if they
have a less recent common ancestor.

We can use a pretty straightforward method to find the most recent common ancestor of any
pair or group of species. In this method, we start at the branch ends carrying the two species
of interest and “walk backwards” in the tree until we find the point where the species’ lines
converge.

For instance, suppose that we wanted to say whether A and B or B and C are more closely
related. To do so, we would follow the lines of both pairs of species backward in the tree. Since
A and B converge at a common ancestor first as we move backwards, and B only converges
with C after its junction point with A, we can say that A and B are more related than B and C.

Aside from phylogenetic tree we also have a similar diagram called a cladogram. In this
system, organisms are placed into groups called clades. A clade is a group of species that
includes a single common ancestor and all descendants of that ancestor.

Cladistics depicts hypotheses about how organisms are related, based on traits of ancestor
and descendent species. Cladistics was developed in the 1950s by a scientist named Willi
Hennig.

A cladogram shows how species may be related by descent from a common ancestor. A
cladogram is a diagram consisting of the following parts

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Root

• A root is the initial common ancestors of all the organisms in a cladogram.

• A root is the starting point for any given cladogram. However, the root might also
indicate that it comes from some other larger clades.

Nodes

• Each node is a hypothetical ancestor that gives rise to two or more daughter taxa.
• Nodes indicate the bifurcating branch point of divergence in all cladograms.
• Thus, a node exists in each point where a group of organisms divides or separate into
further different groups.

Clades

• Clades are groups of organisms or genes that include the most recent common
ancestor of all of its members and all of the descendants of that most recent common
ancestor.
• A clade is made up of an ancestor and all its descendants.
• It includes a particular node and all of its connected branches.

Taxon / Outgroup

• A taxon or an outgroup is the most distantly related group of animals that isn’t
necessarily a clade.
• This functions as a point of reference or comparison for the rest of the cladogram.

Branches

• A branch in a cladogram is a line that connects all the other parts of the cladogram.

• The branch length in some cases represents the extent of divergence or the extent of
the relationship among different taxa.

Example of a cladogram

Example of cladogram

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 According to this cladogram, beetles first branched off from their common ancestor with
other insects. Then, the group that includes wasps, bees, and ants branched off. Finally, flies
branched off from their common ancestor with butterflies and moths. All insects can be
considered a clade because they have a common ancestor. Butterflies, moths, and flies can
also be considered a clade for the same reason

Cladistics is a relatively new method of classifying organisms. Cladistics uses features

called “shared derived characters” to establish evolutionary relationships. A “derived character”
is a feature that evolved only within the group under consideration. An example might be the
hair of mammals. Mammals are the only animals to have hair. It is therefore assumed that hair
evolved within the mammal group and were not inherited from a distant ancestor. Shared
derived characters are strong evidence of common ancestry between the organisms that share
them.

I know you are familiar with the Linnean system of classification. Let us look at the
comparison of the systems of classification.

Phylogenetic Classification
1. Treats all levels of a cladogram as equivalent.
2. Places no limit on the number of levels in a cladogram.
3. Primary goal is to show the process of evolution.
4. It is limited to organisms that are related by ancestry.
5. Does not include a method for naming species.

Linnaean Classification
1. Treats each taxa uniquely and has a special name or each (e.g., genus, species).
2. Has fixed numbers and types of taxa.
3. Primary goal is to group species based on similarities in physical traits.
4. Can include any organisms without regard to ancestry.
5. Has a method for giving unique names to species.

Learner’s Reflection
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Parent’s / Guaradian’s Signiture over Printed Name Date

Reference:

Malipe, M.P.(2020).Evolution and Classification. Learner’s Module in Earth and Life Science. DepEd
CAR: Learning Resource Management and Development System.