exam 1 Flashcards
unity and continuity of life
-life on earth has descended from a common ancestor
-continuity among all living things stems from the inheritance of info encoded in DNA
adaptation and correlation
-evolution has been called that GUT of biology
adaptation and the correlation of structure and function
-adaptation provides a framework for making sense of the otherwise bewildering variation in nature
organisms interact with one another and their environment
-organisms must acquire energy from their environment
-competition, mutualism, predation and parasitism
-ecological context
diversity is valuable, yet under threat
-ecosystem services
-intangible benefits
-human activities threaten biodiversity
defining ecolution: broad definition - descent with modification
-suggests evolutions role in the unity and diversity of all species
-evolutionary relationships are often illustrated with treelike diagrams that show ancestors and their descendants
defining evolution: narrow definition
a change in the genetic composition of a population over generations
-note that evolution is something that happens to pop, not individuals
1795
Hutton proposes his principle of gradualism
1798
maithus publishes “essay on the principle of pop
1809
charles darwin is born
lamarck publishes his hypothesis of evolution
1812
Cuvier publishes his extensive studies of vertebrate fossils
1830
Lyell publishes principles of geology
1831-36
Darwin travels around the world oh HMS beagle
1844
Darwin writes his essay on descent with modification
1858
Wallace send darwin his hypothesis of natural selection
1859
on the origin of species is published
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)
essay on the principle of pop (1798)
-charles darwin, from his autobiography (1876)
Georges Cuvier (1769- 1832)
-Fossils in older strata does not equal fossils in newer strata
-Cuvier advocated catastrophism
-didn’t believe in evolution
James Hutton (1726-1797) and Charles Lyell (1797-1875)
that changes in earths surface can result from slow continous actions still operating today
-lyells principle of uniformitarianism
-this view strongly influenced Darwins thinking
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829)
-observed evolution in the fossil record
-proposed mechanisms:
-use and disuse
-inheritance of acquired characters
August Weismann barrier 1892
cutting mices tails dont make cut tailed offspring
Darwins personal history and contribution
-Charles Robert Darwin (1809- 1882)
-naturalist par excellence
-botany
-zoology
-incomplete forays into medicine and ministry
Voyage of the beagle (1831-1836)
-he observed that fossils resembled living species from the same region, and living species resembled other species from nearby regions
-rather than those of farther regions with similar environments
Darwin delays publication
-by 1840s, Darwin had worked out most of his hypotheses of how these adaptations could arise by natural selectino
-reluctant to publish
-collects more and more evidence
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
reaches similar conclusions, sends manuscript to darwin
-succeeded where thers failed due to “immaculate logic and an avalanche of evidence”
on the origin of species by means of natural selection (1859)
Darwin explained three broad observations:
-the unity of life
-the diversity of life
-the match between organisms and their environment
descent with modification
-“evolution” does not appear in 1st ed. of Origin
-“Descent with modification” was the phrase he used
-attributes unity of life to descent of all organisms from a common ancestor
-gradual accumulation of modifications over millions of years leads to adaptations and biodiversity
evidence for evolution
-darwin noted that humans have modified others species by selecting and breeding individuals with desired traits, a process called artifical selection
-Darwin drew two inferences from two observations
observation 1:
members of a pop often vary in their inherited traits
-ladybugs have different shades and dots
inference 1
-individuals whose inherited traits give them a higher probability of surviving and reproducing in a given environment tend to leave more offspring than other individuals
if the environment changes
observation 2:
-all species can produce more offspring than the environment can support, and many of these offspring fail to survive and reproduce
inference 2
-the unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce will lead to the accumulation of favourable traits in the pop over generations
understanding natural selection : common misconceptions
-new discoveries continue to fill the gaps identified by Darwin in The origin of species
-figure
there are 4 types of data that document the pattern of evolution
-direct observations
-homology
-the fossil record
-biogeography
direct observations
fig 22.14- the rise of MRSA -READ
-which two points about natural selcation do the soapberry ex and the MRSA ex highlight?
homology
-similarity resulting from common ancestry
-supports the evolutionary description of descent with modification
anatomical and molecular homologies
-homologous structures are anatomical resemblances representing variations on a structural theme present in a common ancestor
-forelimbs
-vestigial structures
-pseudogenes
fig
homologies and “tree thinking”
-evolutionary tress are hypotheses about relationships among different groups
-homologies form nested patterns in evolutionary trees
-evolutionary trees can be made using different types of data, for ex, anatomical and DNA sequence data
the fossil record. the transitin to life in the sea
-fossils can document important transitions
-ex. the transition from land to sea in ancestors of cetaceans
Biogeography
-the study of the geographic distribution of species, provides evidence of evolution
-earths continents were formerly united as single large continent (pangaea), but separated by continental drift
-an understanding continent movement and modern species distribution allows us to predict when and where different groups evolved
mendel and the modern synthesis
-one of the great challenges to Darwins theory of evolution by natural selection was the lack of understanding inheritance
-the next great advance in evolutionary biology would require genetics
gregor mendel
-demonstrated particulate inheritance
ready for a modern synthesis
-inheritance better understood
-new field of genetics develops
-in particular, population genetics
-stage is set for a synthesis of several disciplines under the umbrella of evolutionary biology
populations _ not _
populations evolve, not individuals
microevolution
-a change in allele frequencies in a population over generations
3 mechanisms cause allele freguencies in a pop over generations
-natural selection
-genetic drift
-gene flow
only natural selection causes adaptive evolution
what causes adaptive evolution
natural selection
genetic variation
-variation in heritable traits is a prerequisite for evolution
-mendels work on pea plants provided evidence of discrete heritable units (genes)
genetic variation among individuals is caused by:
differences in genes or other DNA segments
P=G+E
genetic veriation within and between populations
within pop:
-nucleotide variability rarely results in phenotypic variation
-note all phenotypic variation is the result of genetic variation
figs
where does genetic variation come from?
sources:
-new genes and alleles can arise by mutation or gene duplication
-sexual reproduction can result in genetic variation by recombining existing alleles
sexual reproduction
-sexual reproduction can shuffle existing alleles into new combinations
-crossing over
-independent assortment of chromosomes
-fertilization
hardy-weinberg
the equation can be used to test whether a pop is evolving
-the first step in testing whether evolution is occurring in a pop is to clarify what we mean by a pop
population
a localized group of individuals capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring
gene pools
consists of all the alleles for all loci in a pop
-a locus is fixed if all individuals in a pop are homozygous for the same allele
fig
allele frequencies
-if there are 2 or more alleles for a locus, diploid individuals may be either homozygous or heterozygous
-the frequency of an allele in pop can be calculated
-for dipoid organisms, the total number of alleles at a locus is the total number of individuals times 2
-the total number of dominant alleles at a locus is 2 alleles for homozygous dominant individual plus 1 allele for each heterozygous individual; the same logic applies for recessive alleles
-by covention, if there are 2 alleles at a locus, p and q are used to represent their frequencies
-frequency of all alleles in a pop will add up to 1
-that is, p + q = 1