Changes over generation Unit 3.

1
Theory of evolution
-​ Explains how new species come into being and how species change
What is an adaptation?
-​ Is a character modification that makes an organism better suited to its habitat or way
of life
Fossils and evolution
-​ Fossils have shown us:
-​ Birds and a branch of dinosaurs share similarities in their structure (feathers,
bones/keel, eggs)
-​ Amphibians and lobe-finned fish show similar bone in the limbs
-​ The apparent change in species over time is called evolution
Evolution
-​ Is defined as a genetic change in the characteristics of a specie over many
generations resulting in the formation of new species
-​ A generation is the time between the birth of an individual and when that individual
produces their own offspring
Changes in structure:
-​ Body increase in size
-​ Legs become longer
-​ Number of toes decreases
Hyracotherium - 4 toes on front legs
Mesohippus - (40 mya) 3 toes; with a thicker middle toe and a smaller side toes
Merychippus - (2o mya) they also had an enlarged middle toe
Equus - modern horses, zebras and donkeys. Modern horses run on one large toe on each
foot. It is thought that smaller side toes are an adaptation to running fast

Structure and relationships

-​ ‘Organisms with very similar structures must be related’
-​ This view was based on:
-​ The knowledge that organisms seemed to inherit their characteristics from
their parents
Homologous structures
-​ Same basic structure but different function
-​ E.g
-​ Cats paw and a lion's paw
-​ Humans hands and whales flipper share same basic plan
Analogous structure
-​ Different structure but same function (due to being in the same environment)
-​ E.g
-​ Dolphins and sharks have similar streamlined body and fins. Dolphins are
mammals while sharks are fish, they evolved separately
-​ This is because they evolved in similar environments. They have genetically
different structures that look similar
Vestigial structures
-​ Are those structures that have no apparent function or appear to be residual parts
from past ancestors
-​ E.g
-​ Human- appendix, culd have been a caecum in herbivorous organisms from
cellulose digesting
-​ Human - tailbone/coccyx, part of a tailed ancestor
Artificial selection
-​ The process by which we choose to breed a particular organism with desirable
features
-​ Only happens over generations
-​ Example: budgerigars
-​ The different colours and patterns are a result of breeders choosing particular
budgerigars as parents and breeding them
-​ New mutations (not seen in the wild) occurring could also be chosen by breeders and
passed on
Selective breeding methods
-​ Can be done in 2 ways:
-​ Cross - breeding
-​ Combines desirable features from one individual with desirable
features from another individual in their offspring. Example
labradoodle
-​ Interbreeding
-​ Related individuals are allowed to mate. May result in health issues so
not practised on animals

Natural selection Unit 3.2

Charles Darwin
-​ 1809-1882
-​ 1858 - proposed the theory that the process by which species change over time is
called natural selection
Alfred Wallace
-​ 1823-1913
-​ British naturalist
-​ Co-developed the theory of natural selection and evolution with charles Darwin
Natural selection
-​ Is the process where an environmental factor acts on a population and results in
some organisms having more offspring than others.
-​ The environmental; factor that acts on the population is called a selective agent.
The agent may be biotic (such as bacteria) or abiotic (such as temperature).
-​ E.g
-​ Falcon is a selective agent on the pigeons. It affects the features such as how
fast and agile pigeons become. The faster a pigeon is, the better its chances
of survival.
-​ Fire is a selective agent in australia. many trees with thick barks protect living
tissue underneath
Selective agents
-​ Many act by killing individuals. Such individuals are often less suited to surviving and
are referred to as ‘less fit’ pr ‘poorly adapted’
-​ Light coloured mice are poorly adapted and less fit to survive on dark soil
-​ Selective agents do not always act by killing
-​ Female birds often select brighter coloured males for breeding. Darwin called his
sexual selection. He thought of natural selection as something that kills
-​ The individuals that are favoured by the selective agents pass on their features to the
next generation → species gradually becomes better adapted to its environment
-​ The dark coloured mice survive better, eventually leading to an population with more
darker mice than light ones
Genetic and natural selection
-​ Natural selection is the change in proportion of a particular genotype of a specie over
many generations due to environmental selection of a particular phenotype
-​ This means that the likelihood of a particular characteristics depends on the
genotype being favoured
Variation
-​ Darwin concluded that natural selection will only act if there is variation in the
population. Genetics was not known at that time, so he didn't know the how or why of
variation
-​ Variation is caused by different genes, which results in different characteristics

Evidence of natural selection

Peppered moth
-​ existed in 2 forms - white with black specks (normal) and all black (mutant)
-​ In cities almost all were black. In rural areas, almost all were white
-​ Differences were due to selective agents (birds) acting on the populations
-​ In the cities, all the building and tree trunks had been blackened by soot of the
industrial pollution. Any white moth resting on the trees could be seen more easily
than the black moths. So the birds removed white moths faster than they removed
the black ones. Black moths produce black offsprings and so the population
eventually became mainly black. So the black form was considered to be better
adapted to its polluted city environment.
-​ In rural areas, the air was cleaner and tree trunks were of a lighter colour. This made
the white moths harder to see. The black moths were eaten more often and so the
population eventually became nearly all white. Now, the white moths were better
adapted to their environment
Insects
-​ When the chemical insecticides began to be sprayed onto crops, it was thought that
the insecticides would kill all insects and that food production would rise greatly.
-​ However these insecticides were only effective for a few years requiring farmers to
increase the concentration of the insecticides they used. Not all the sprayed insects
died. Eventually the sprays had no effect and none of the insects died.
-​ The ability of insects to survive the poison spray is called resistance
-​ Resistant insects survived when the population were sprayed but the non resistant
insects all died. The resistant insects then bred and produced offspring, most of
which inherited resistance. Every time the farmer’s sprayed there would be a larger
 population of resistant insects on the crops. As many farmers sprayed over a large
area the insect population quickly became resistant.
Bacteria
-​ Alexandra Fleming found a way to kill bacteria. He discovered that some fungi make
special chemicals called antibiotics to defend themselves against bacteria. The forest
antibiotic to be isolated was penicillin
-​ The widespread use of antibiotics caused the bacteria to become resistant to
antibiotics by natural selection. The reproduction rate of bacteria is very high, some
divide every 20 minutes. Resistance in bacteria works the same way as resistance of
insecticides in insects

Speciation and evolution Unit 3.3

-​ More biodiversity, better the environment
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution
-​ Charles darwin proposed that natural selection could result in the formation of new
species
-​ He called this ‘modification by descent’ rather than evolution
-​ This term evolution was applied to his work by other scientists
Darwin and Galapagos Finches
-​ Darwin studied differences in beak shapes of 15 finch species. It seemed as if they
were ‘selected’ for different food sources available on the island
-​ Some beaks were perfect for sucking nectar while other were shaped better to crack
nuts or catch insects
-​ Darwin proposed that the birds were all related to each other and had somehow
changed to suit the different islands (and diet) they live on
Species
-​ The theory of evolution states that similar species must be closely related to each
other
-​ Two organisms that interbreed to produce fertile offsprings under natural conditions
belong to the same species
-​ Species can be now be determined by:
-​ Interbreeding
-​ DNA
-​ Amino acid sequence i proteins

Example: Kingfisher
-​ All 9 species of kingfisher have some similarities and so all descended from the
same ancestral species. Some of them are more closely related than others
Steps involved in speciation
-​ The process by which one species splits into 2 or more separate species
-​ Resulted in higher level of biodiversity
-​ Occurs in 3 steps:
-​ Variation - there must exist variation within a population
-​ Isolation - groups of population must get isolated preventing interbreeding;
preventing gene flow; stopping any difference sin 1 population reaching the
other
 -​ Selection - natural selection affects genotype and causes changes that
prevent groups from breeding even if they come together again
-​ Courtship behaviour
-​ Sterility
-​ Chemical barriers
-​ Breeding session
-​ Interbreeding: breeding within the species
Evidence of evolution
1.​ Fossils
a.​ Simple to more complex life forms
b.​ Makes sense as its unlikely complex animals would develop first and become
simpler
c.​ Increasing number of species that live on earth
d.​ Many extinct species such as dinosaurs, diprotodon, marsupial lions
e.​ Transitional fossils have features of two different groups
i.​ Lobe-finned fish, Archaeopteryx
2.​ Comparative anatomy
a.​ Compares structures of organisms both living and fossils
b.​ E.g homologous structures
3.​ DNA and protein structure
a.​ Organisms that have similar anatomy show more genes in common than
organisms that are less alike
b.​ Proteins are made of chains of amino acids in a sequence which can be
compared
c.​ E.g cytochrome C of humans and rhesus monkeys differ only in 1 position
4.​ Distribution of current species
a.​ Map of all places where a species occur is called the distribution of the
species
b.​ Many unique species occur on isolated islands
c.​ E.g honeycreeper bird
5.​ Embryology
a.​ The study of the development, structure and function of embryos
b.​ Comparison shows similarities in the early stages of development
c.​ E.g all have ‘tail’