FLS 307P NOTES

EVOLUTION

Evolution is the accumulation of genetic changes within a population over time.

 The term evolution does not refer to changes that occur to an individual within its
lifetime. Instead it refers to changes in the characteristics of populations in the course of
generations.
 These changes may be so small that they are so difficult to detect or so great that the
population differs markedly from its ancestral population.
 Eventually, two populations may diverge to such a degree that we refer to them as two
different species.
 Evolution may involve the minor evolutionary changes of populations usually viewed
over a few generations which is called microevolution, and the major evolutionary
events usually viewed over a long period of time, such as formation of different species
from common ancestors known as macroevolution.

Important practical applications of evolution include the following:

 Agriculture has to deal with the evolution of pesticide resistance in insects and other
pests.
 Medicine must respond to the rapid evolutionary potential of disease-causing organisms
such as bacteria and viruses.

Theories of Evolution

A number of different scientists and scholars have contributed towards the theory of evolution
in different ways though the most significant contributions were those of Charles Darwin. Of
note was the contribution by Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, a naturalist who was the first scientist
to propose that organisms undergo change over time as a result of some natural phenomenon
rather than divine intervention.

Lamarck’s Theory (1744-1829)

The conditions that account for Lamarckian evolution were:

 The use and disuse of parts and the inheritance of acquired characteristics

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  He argued that changes in the environment may lead to changed patterns of
behavior which can necessitate new or increased use (or disuse) of certain
structures or organs
 Extensive use could lead to increase in size or efficiency while disuse could lead to
the deterioration of those organs.
 These traits acquired during the lifetime of an individual were believed to be
heritable and thus transmitted offspring.

He used an example of the giraffe. Stated that

 The long neck and legs of the modern giraffe were the result of generations of
short necked and short necked ancestors feeding on progressively higher levels of
trees.
 The slightly longer necks and legs produced in each generation were passed on to
the next generation until the size of the present day giraffe was reached.

Lamarck also thought that all organisms were endowed with a vital force that forced them to
change towards greater complexity and “perfection” over time.

Charles Darwin

 Embarked on a 5-year exploratory voyage on board the HMS Beagle to prepare

navigation charts for the British navy.
 Spent many weeks ashore studying the animals, plants, fossils and geological formations
off the west and east coast of South America, both inland and coastal.
 Collected and catalogued thousands of animal and plant species.
 Spent 2 months on the Galapagos Islands off the north-west coast of South America.
 Compared the animals and plants he had collected on Galapagos with those collected
on the mainland and was particularly impressed by their similarities.
 Also observed distinct differences between the plants and animals on the mainland and
the islands and also between the islands themselves.
 Pondered on these observations and attempted to develop a satisfactory explanation
for the distribution of these species.

Principles that influenced Darwin’s thinking

1. A book called Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell (1830). This book provided Darwin
with the important concept that the slow pace of geologic process, which still occur
today, indicated that the earth was extremely old.
2. He was also influenced by the fact that breeders and farmers could develop many
varieties of many domesticated animals in just a few generations. This they did just by

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 choosing certain desired traits and breeding only individuals that exhibited the desired
traits. This procedure was known as artificial selection.
3. The ideas of Thomas Malthus in his “Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects
the Future Improvement of Society”. In this Book Malthus noted the following points:
 Population growth is not always desirable. Populations have the capacity to
increase geometrically (1, 2, 4, 8, 16) and thus outstrip the food supply which has
only has the capacity to increase arithmetically (1, 2, 3, 4).
 In the case of humans, conflict between population growth and food supply
generates famine, diseases and war which serve as inevitable checks on
population growth.

Based on the postulations of Malthus, Darwin concluded that there had to be a struggle for
existence, and that inherited variations favourable for survival tend to be preserved, whereas,
unfavourable ones tend to be eliminated. The result would be adaptation, which is an
evolutionary modification that improves the chances of survival and reproductive success in a
given environment. From these observations, Darwin came up with the Theory of Natural
Selection.

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

This theory states that better adapted organisms are more likely to survive and become parents
of the next generation. As a result of natural selection, the population changes over time; the
frequency of favourable traits increases in successive generations, whereas less favourable
traits become scarce or disappear.

Darwin’s mechanism of evolution by natural selection consists of observations in four aspects

of the natural world. These are:

1. Variation
 The individuals in population exhibit variation. Each individual has a unique
combination of traits such as colour, size, mobility, resistance, etc.
 Some traits improve an individual’s chances of survival and reproductive success
yet others don’t.
2. Overproduction
 The reproductive ability of each species has the potential to cause its population
to geometrically increase over time.
 In each case however, only a few offspring survive to reproduce. Thus in every
generation, each species has the capacity to produce more offspring than can
survive.
3. A struggle for existence

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  There is only so much food, water, light, growing space and other resources
available to a population.
 Because there are more individuals than the environment can support, not all
survive to reproduce.
4. Differential reproductive success.
 Those individuals that have the most favourable combination of characteristics
are the most likely to survive and reproduce.
 Successful reproduction is the key to natural selection; the best-adapted
individuals produce the most offspring, whereas individuals that are less adapted
die prematurely or produce fewer or inferior offspring.

Over time, enough changes may accumulate in geographically separated populations to

produce new species.

The Modern Synthesis

Though Darwin concluded that individuals transmit traits to the next generation, he could not
explain how this happens and why individuals vary within a population.

In the 1930s-1940s, biologists experienced a conceptual breakthrough when they combined the
principles of Mendelian inheritance with Darwin’s theory of natural selection. The result was a
unified explanation of evolution known as the Modern Thesis.

The modern synthesis explains Darwin’s observation of variation among offspring in terms of
mutation or changes in DNA. Mutations provide the genetic variability on which natural
selection acts during evolution. The modern thesis emphasizes the genetics of populations as
the central focus of evolution.

(These notes have been adapted from Solomon, Berg and Martin (2011) BIOLOGY, ninth edition
chp. 18, pp391-396 or 2019 p 385-390)