Lecture 1 - History of Evolution

Question 1

What is variation?

Answer 1

The genetic variation of all life forms within a population.

Question 2

What is inheritance?

Answer 2

Genetic traits are passed from parents to offspring.

Question 3

What is selection?

Answer 3

When organisms with more favourable traits for survival and reproduction are more likely to pass their genes to the next generation.

Question 4

What did Dobzhansky define evolution as?

Answer 4

A change in the frequency of an allele within a gene pool.

Question 5

Who defined evolution as a change in the frequency of an allele within a gene pool?

Answer 5

Dobzhansky

Question 6

Describe the understanding of evolution in hunter gatherers.

Answer 6

Required a classification system.

Coud recognise organisms, fruits and plants as a key to their survival.

Question 7

Describe the understanding of evolution in early agriculture.

Answer 7

Required the domestication of livestock and crops and selection of improved variants, thus some understanding of inheritance and artificial selection.

Question 8

When was Aristotle present?

Answer 8

3rd century BC

Question 9

Describe Aristotle’s classification system.

Answer 9

Classified organisms into a ‘Natural Ladder’ / Scala naturae, from less complex/non-living beings (e.g. rocks) to more complex (humans).

Question 10

What is the Christian ‘evolution’ theory known as?

Describe this theory.

Answer 10

Special creation.
Species are unchanging and created independently.
Earth is young and species created recently.

Question 11

How old was the Earth believed to be in 1650?

Answer 11

400 years old.

Question 12

How did Compte de Buffon (1779) predict the age of the Earth?

Answer 12

Observing how long it takes a ball of material to cool.

Predicted it to be 2-3 million years old.

Question 13

How did James Hutton (1788) predict the ae of the Earth?

Answer 13

Observed that the erosion of rocks takes a long period of time, introducing ideas on gradualism.

Question 14

Name two important palaeontologists.

Answer 14

• Georges Cuvier

- Mary Anning

Question 15

Describe the work of Mary Anning.

Answer 15

• At Lyme Regis
• Identified Icthyosaur and fish fossils
  Important contribution to evolutionary biology

Question 16

Describe the theory of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck.

Answer 16

All species (inc. humans) derived by gradual evolution by other species.
Characteristics can be acquired through an organism's lifetime and passed on to other species, e.g. giraffe stretching neck to reach high leaves.

Question 17

Who were Lamarck’s theories of gradual evolution also discussed by?

Answer 17

Erasmus Darwin

Question 18

What influenced Charles Darwin’s theories?

Answer 18

Observations made during a voyage as a naturalist on the survey ship The Beagle; visited many islands, which are microcosms for evolutionary biology.

Question 19

What date did Charles Darwin first formulate the theory of natural selection?

Answer 19

1838

Question 20

What date was ‘The Origin of Species’ first published?

Answer 20

1859

Question 21

Describe the work of Alfred Russell Wallace.

Answer 21

Independently thought of idea of natural selection as the method of evolution.
1855 sent theory in manuscript to Darwin, prompted Darwin to publish his own ideas.

The Wallace Line = the line that separates Asia from Australia in terms of fauna and flora that occur.

Question 22

What are the four postulates for the theory of Natural Selection?

Answer 22

1) Individuals within species are variable.
2) Some of the variations are passed to offspring.
3) In most generations, more offspring are produced than can survive.
4) Survival and reproduction are not random: individuals with the highest reproductive success are those with the most favourable variations.

Question 23

How did Darwin describe inheritance?

Answer 23

As ‘blending’ - the inheritance of two alleles that are somehow ‘blended’ to give a new form (e.g. red and white hair = pink hair).

Question 24

Describe Gregor Mendel’s work.

Answer 24

Bred carden peas observing pea morphologies, discovering how traits are passed on.
Said that inheritance is particulate, and discrete particles (now known to be genes) are passed from parents to offspring.

Question 25

Describe some evidence in small scale patterns for evolution.

Answer 25

Evidence of species changing over time. Seen in:

• Domestication of organisms (in artificial selection and agriculture)
• Natural selection in wild populations
• Experimental evolution

Question 26

Describe how artificial selection gives evidence for evolution.

Answer 26

Domestication of dogs and evolution of dog breeds:

• Dogs domesticated 16,000 years ago.
• 15 breeds of dog in Darwin’s childhood
• 50 when ‘The Origin’ was published
• 400 breeds of dog today.

Question 27

Give an example of natural selection.

Answer 27

In Deer mice in North America; different populations have different coloured coats in soils of different colour.
Pale coats in populations found in sand dunes.

Question 28

Describe the work of Richard Lenski.

Answer 28

Worked on experimental evolution.
Long-term adaptation of E. coli to a lab environment, with glucose as the sole carbon source.
After 10,000 generations, fitness of bacteria increased.
After 30,000 generations, one of strains also switched to using citrate, evolving an entirely new biochemical pathway.

Question 29

Describe an example of large scale patterns as evidence of speciation.

Answer 29

Viewing vestigial structures: a useless body part with an important function in other closely allied species, e.g. hairs of bodies in humans used for dominance displays in chimpanzees.

Question 30

Give an example of a vestigial structure.

Answer 30

In marine sticklebacks, experience large predators, sticklebacks have armours and spikes.
In freshwater, less predators, reduced armour but still remanence in their skeletal structures.

Question 31

Give an example of homology as evidence for speciation.

Answer 31

Same organ found in related animals with a variety of different functions, e.g. the vertebrate limb: fins in whales, arms in humans, legs in mammals/reptiles, wings for flight in birds and bats.

Question 32

Give an example of succession as evidence for natural selection.

Answer 32

Organisms occurring in distinct geographical regions are related to one another, e.g. fossil Glyptodon and the armadillo.

Question 33

Who said ‘nothing makes sense, except the light of evolution’?

Answer 33

Dobzhansky