Test #1 Flashcards
Misconception about Darwin
The importance of Darwin himself – people think that only he came up with theory or that all scientists were against him and he revolutionized the idea –> NOT TRUE
- Misconception = that he came up with his ideas suddenly all on hos own –> In reality – his grand idea didn’t come about in a vaccum
***Darwin was just in the right place at the right time to get the credit BUT he was not the only person
What led Darwin to his ideas (overall)
He was alive at the point of intersection of intellectual processes that led people towards this direction
***NOTE: He was NOT the only person to connect the dots at the time of connection
Darwins concluions were…
An inevitable outcome of broader perspectives at the time – the reason that he gets too much credit (it wasn’t as revolutionary as people make it seem)
Persectives in the past (limitations on people)
At Darwins time – it was hard to have sufficient perspectives for one person –> Took time to draw out that perscteive to think about areas that you weren’t around
Understanding Earth’s age
Took time to know that earth is older than what we know –> hard to get that persective
Importance of Empirical Thought
Once scientific empirical thought took hold = increased understanding of earth iteself –> THEN applies this to biological systems
Who set the stage for Darwin’s profound realization
- Nicholas Steno
- William Smith
- James Hutton + Charles Lyell
Darwin (Overall)
Great Naturalist
***He travelled = gave him first hand persective on the variety of the world + how wide the world was
***His ideas did NOT come about in a vacuum
How did Darwin draw his conlusions
Drew conclusions from years of observations of species in their natural envirnments + Fossils + patterns of traits in domesticated animals
- He had first hand expriences of variety of world + how wide the world was from travelling
Key Developments before Darwin
- Antiquity of the world
- The relationships among organisms
Nicholas Steno
Overall: Established the underlying Premise of geology
- Dutch Bishop
- First real academic realization of what FOSSILS are
Example – Shark Teeth – before they didn’t connect that they came from living things
- Notes distirbution of fossil marine animals in terrestial rocks
- Developed idea of straigraohy
- Was only looking at local rocks
- had understanding of geology –> understood that we can study earth via studying rocks
***made a system to study rocks within his region
Stratigraphy
Study of the layers of rocks in terms of chronology
***Idea was developed by Nicholas Steno
Steno + Stratigraphy
He developed idea of straigraohy – he found that the laters reprented chronology – that diffrent layers are diffrent events in geologic history
William Smith
English Surveyer
Overall: Was able to see the big picture of stratigraphy – connected rock formation in diffreent parts of Britain –> Aligned rocks in one area to rock layer in a different areas based on fossils (found the same types of fossils in layers but in diffreent places = knew they had to be from the same time)
- Notes that the strata from across england showed remarlable consistencey in the fossils that they hold
- Found strata can be identofied across wide geographic span by “index fossils”
- Broadened Stratography – NOW not just in one place
- Understood earth on larger scale
***Did his work because looking for mines
Index fossils
Fossils that serve as diagnostics for a particular geologic period
***Index fossils = indicate layer
What did Smith see?
He connected rock formation in diffrent parts of Britain –> Aligned rocks in one area to rocks in layer in different area – saw the same change over time
- Saw that particular layers of rock in different parts of the world can be aligned by fossils in the layers
James Hutton + charles Lyell
Overall: Found that processes that have built and shaped geologic strata are essentially the same as the processes we see at work today
- Understanding geologic processes NOT just patterns anymore
Suggested: that the grdaual nature of these porcesses indicates that earth MUST be expreml;ey old
- Thought about porcesses happening today and how they scale over time to create what we see
- Understood what happened in Past + When we scale up rate of ongoing processes wbnough to see large scale processes we see – wouold mean that earth need to be much older than people thought before
What came from Hutton + Lyell
Created Uniformitarism
Uniformitarism
Natural Laws observable around us now are also responsible for events of the past
- Means that the properties of the universe have not foundationally changed over time –> Same processes for history of earth.
- Means that the same laws of nature are not changing from expeirmnet to expeimnet
**Idea that the present is the key to the past
**Really important in science
***Came out of geology
Why is Uniformitarism important in scinece?
Because it means that the same laws of nature are NOT changing from experiment to experiment – very important in science
Things in geology that affected biology perspective
- Found that the earth is old
- Makes sense of broadening persiectives
- Explains things by sclaing up ongoing processes – don’t need supernatural explinations for things
Relationships among organisms (overall)
Broader view of the living worls arts to take shape around that time – it took leaving small town to broaden persepctive
Linneus
Overall: father of taxonomy + binomial nomenclature – made hiearch –> Tied together all we know about life forms
- Gave comprehensive volume for how living world is connected
- Classified and named over 12,000 species of plants and animals
- Searched for divine plan in relationship among taxa
- Though species are immutable (Do not change) – BUT he still found connction between them
- Found connections between living things
- Set ground of perscetive for people to make DWM
Buffon
Naturalist – started grappeling with ohysical mechanistic explinations of the earth and living world long before Darwin
OVERALL: recoignized the improtnace of patterns in biogeography
- Observing regional differnces among species led some to start thinkning that species might not be immutable
- one of the first naturalists to begin expressing teh ideas that species may change over time
- Paying attentoon to differnece between organisms of the same species
- Thought about the idea that species change through time
Question: How did differences come about – does it show that organisms change across space
Biogeography
The study of distribution of species across space – observing regional diffreences among species led some to start thinkning that species might not be immutable
Example:
1. Wolves – North America/Siber = Large Vs. tropical = Small
- Moose – Alaska Vs. Scandanavia
Buffon realization
Thought about the idea that species change through time – did it by how species are distributed across the world –> Disrubution might tell us about how organisms might change
Question: How did differences come about – does it show that organisms change across space
***Shows that the idea of species changing over time did not start with Darwin
Buffon Ideas
Thiought all soecies were made in Europe and then they dispersed and degraded
Lamarck
Overall: Described how traits of organisms are matched to their envirnments and habitats
- Said traits of organisms match their envirnments well –> came up with how organisms change over time + how change is tramitted thorugh time
- Thought species change over time
- First to develope a cohesive thory in how organisms evolove
***Came up with 1st theory of how heredity works BUT he was wrong
Lamark’s heredity
Said that traits of organisms match the envirnment well –> came up with how organisms chnage over time + how chnage is transmitted through time
HAD IDEA OF AQUIRED INHERTIANCE
Who was the ifrst to develope a cohesive thoery in how irganisms evolove?
Lamark
Lamarkism
Change in organisms brought by natural physical processes
Contains:
1. Force of coplefications (Spontenous generation) – increase in complexity through time
1. Force of adaptations (Aquired inheritance) – match body to envirnment – idea of how organisms chang over time
Example – Giraffes necks get longer
***Had idea of aquired inheritance
Cuvier
Father of paleontology from a biological persective – put fossils in biological context
Geeatest contirbution – realuzation of excitcion – credited with deomnstrating that extiction is real
- realized that geologic history was charachterized by waves of diffrent fauna
- Still thought species were immutable
- Thought ecosystems are created and destroyed over again
Cuvier ideas
Idea of catastophism – thought that ecosystems are created and destroyed over and over again
How did Dawrin make observations
Restless young man – joined the company of naval vessel at 22 00> circumnavigated the globe – giving breadth of perscetive on nagural world that few with his interstes and training experinced
***Because of this = he made observations of living and geologic world
Darwin’s observation in context
He was making these observations about the worlkd in the intelecual context
Inevitability of Darwin’s conclusions
His ocnclusions were inevitable – this view of life was coming into focus anyway
- He was NOT the only person with ideas at the time
Dawrin was thw the first person to put all of the peices together BUT he sat on his ideas for a decade
***We give darwin too much credit – it was inevitable conversion of intersection
How do we know that Darwin’s conclusion were inevtiable
Becayse Wallace had independelet arrived at the same conlsuions – shows that the conclsuions were inevitable because it actuallt did happen somegere else
Wallace
He came up with the same conclsuoons as Dawrin independeley – he was more eager to announce his finidngs= spurred Darwin to publish his work
Dawrin + Wallace
came up with same conclsuions – wallace was more eager to announce his findings = spurred Darwin to publish his work –> Darwin gets credut becayse he was rocher
***Shows influence of class politics
Componenets of Darwinian Evolution
- Pattern
- process
Pattern of Darwinian Evolution
Common decent – Descent with modification
Process of Darwinian Evolution
Mechanisms for how changes arrive – process = natrual selection
Which is more acceoted pattern or processes
People NOW accept natural selection (process) more than the pattern
- The common decent thing is the thing that people don’t like
AT Darwins time it was the opposite – people didn’t accept the mechanism
Why didn’t people accept mechanism at Darwin’s time?
- They didn’t have the math to show the mechanism at the time
- They didn’t have the genetic idea at the time – didn’t know about heredity
Two models for explaining patterns of biodiversity
- Special Creation
- Descent with Modification
Modern science
Essnetially we are confronting models with data to disprove models
Example – comparing models of special creation with DWM
Special Creation
- Species are immutable (unchnaging)
- Lneages fo NOt diverge
- Species are created seperatley
- Species are geniologically independet – not fundementally realted to each other
How did they combine special creation + fossils
There was an idea that all things were created at one point and existed over time
***They didn’t really think that this was true because they knew extictions happen because of fossils = they thought that species are made at once and then die and a new species is made
Overall: idea that species pop in and out of existence
Descent with Modification (overall)
- Species change thorugh time
- Single lineases give rise to many – diverge
- Old forms beget new forms – connects round history of life –> genologically realted
- Species are geniologically related
- Requries the earth to be vastly older than recorded human history – requires a huge amount of time for this to occur
Lines of evidence for Descent with Modification
- Do species change over time
- Does special occur?
- Do new forms arise from old?
- Are different Groups of organisms related
Do species change over time OR are they fixed in traits?
We know that species change over time because we can make them change – we domestricate things = we chaneg theor traits over time = we know that their can change
How do we make species change
We domesticate things = we know that species change over time
Evidence of species changing over time
- Artifcial Selection
- Applied Breeding (domestication)
Evidence for populations changing undeer human control
Artifical selection – seen in scientific experiments –> shows species change over time
- Can see change in behavioer
- String interfences
- Often modest expected change
- experiments can also involove exposing popularions to experimental conditions and measuring for heretible change
Example – do experimnet with mice runing on treadmill – only take the fastest mice and breed them
Agents of selection in selection experiment
Humans – if doing selection experiment = people impose selection –> humans are the agents of selection
Second type of experiment that shows species change over time
Experimental evolution –> expose populations to experimental conditions and measure for heretible chnages
Experimental evolution
Take population and expose to new conditions – see change
***SHows that species change over time
Example – Threespine sickle back
Threespine sickle back experimnet
Overall: Taking population and exposing to new conditions to see change
Threespine sickback = occurs in marine and freshwater popultions
- The freshwater popultions = have better cold tolerance
- When take diffreent popultions from nature and carfully test the thermo tolerance in lab reared genertaion THEN tranfer them to expeirmntal ponds with cold conditions
- DOES NOT have acrtive control breeding – not purposfully putting the cold tolerant fish with cold tolerant fish
Result: When bring them back into the lab and have offspring under contrlled conditions –> the offsrping cold tiolerance imporved by 2.5 degrees in just 3 generattions – minimum temperature of gish improves –> now they can maintain homeostatsis in coldeer envirnment
- exposure to colder –> have phenotypic shift
- NOT picking only the cold tolerant – all of them can made
Applied Breeding
Domestication – shows that species change over time
Morphological change in applied breeding
Applied breeding = shwos there can be morphological chnage (physical chnage – change to body structure)
History of Applied breeding
We have a long history of selevctive breeding fo domestic plants + Animals giving rise to unambiguous answer that species DO change over time
Example #1 – Dogs – share common ancestory
- Wolf = common ancestory –> have morphological shift becased on humans applying selective pressure (getting different breed of dogs)
- Morphologic change can be seen in cranium
- Would say that they are different species beased on morphology if you didn;t know that they were all one
Example #2 – Can be seen in plants (we domesticate plants too = we know species change over time) –> Wild mustard
- The common wild mustard plant was domestricated to make many plants –> all domestirca forms of same common ancestral plant
Does speciation occur?
ANSWER: YES – many expamples of recent on-going speciation in nature
Speciation
One lineage splits into two seperate lineages
Do new forms arise from old?
YES
Evidence:
1. Biogeographhical + paleotological evidence –> Seen in law of sucession
2. Transitional Fossils
What connects organisms across history of life?
Old forms giving rise to new forms
Law of Succession
Correspondance among fossils and existing faina dn flora in spaces
***Evidence that do forms arise from old
- Correspondance across modern organisms and possible origins in the same space –> Modern organisms in a space corresponds to the fossils in that space
Example #1 – Australian fossils that are mammals are marsupials BUT asiam mammals are placentals
Example #2 – Apes – see modern and fossils in the same place
Example #3 – Sloths –> they are ONLY found in the new world – connects modern fossils in the same regions
Wallace Line
Differentates faina of asian origin with fiana of australian origin
- Seperates placentals Vs. Marsupials
***Seen in fossils + existing organisms
What do we expect to see in the fossil record IF new forms arise from old?
Exoect to see fossils with mixes of Ancestral and Novel traits
Transitional Fossils
Fossils with mix of ancestral and novel traits – ties groups of organisms over time
Example – Dinasours with feathers
Misconception about Transitional Fossils
That they are link between two things
Transitional Fossils are NOT link between two things – they are a branching point with a mix of traits
- they are NOT direct loinks rather they are reprenstative of organisms that shared a common ancestor with a group near a branching point
Predictions about transitional fossils
Based on gaps between existing organisms and ones in the fossil record = we can make predictions about what transitional form to expect
- In some cases paleotologists have been very sucessful with this
Example – evolution of whales
Evolution of Whales
Whales = hoof mammals
- Evolution of whales from terrestrial ungulates in the Eocene to Ocean going + Krill feeding giants of today
- once found where to look = found the set of transition fossils to connect the dots
Connectivity in the living world
IS NOT along a single tradectory – NOT a straight line
- People think that evolution is a single tradjectory – that it is a direct progression within a single lineage over time –> NOT TRUE
EVOLUTION – is NOT a singloe lineage – have branching diversification over time = need to contextulaize thorugh fossils
Example of Transitional Fossils
Whales – conects 2 kinds of hippos and 2 kinds of whales
Start = mammal – know many steps occur in trantion
- Can see fossils with hind limbs –> orginals that ahve all BUT one feature
- Orginal mammal = not direct ancsetor BUT is part of the processes
- Can see existing organisms with lens
- Example transitional form = filter feeder + some no teeth
- Still living organisms can be transitional forms
***Transitional forms shows mix of trauts that allows us to understand developement
Homology
Charachteristics shared among orgnaisms because they were inherited from a common ancestory
***homolgous traits
- Similarities = biologically meaningful NOT just coincidence – they are because of a common ancestor
Example of homology
- Mammal Limb Bones
Evidence that different groups of organisms are related
- Homology
Mammal Limb bones
Limbs = highly conserved –> ecen if they are in diffrent shapes and sizes and have different purposes
Better Forms of homolgous traits
There are better forms for homolgous traits for their function BUT they are confined by shape in ancestory
Places homology is seen
- Vestigal traits
- Atavism
Vestigal Structure
A useless rudimentary version of a trait that is a function in related taxa
- Reminent of traits in ancestors
Example
1. Psudgogenes
2. Moden Whales
3. Appendix
Psudogenes
Non-functional copies of coding genes
Example – Vitamen C synthesis in Primates
- Humans need to ingest vitaman C BUT other animals don’t –> this is because hour ancestors were furgavors = they were not limited in vitamn C –> there was a mutation that stopped vitamen C. production BUT there was no bad effect because we got enough Vitamen C in diet = kept mutation
Whales + Vestigal traits
Modern whales = have no hind limbs BUT they have a pelvis bone that is not attatched to anything because ancestors had hind limbs
Appendix + Vestigal trait
Appendix = was thought to have NO use BUT now we think it may play some role in gut microbiome
Atavistic Traits
Reappearnce of ancestral traits in individuals
- Provised evidence of homology in developmental pathways
Example – more than 2 nipples
Use of Atavistic traits
Provide evidence of homology in developmental oathways – mutation in development occurs that re-turns on a gene
***We can manipulate atavistic traits ourselves
Manupulating Atavistic traits
We can manipulate appearnace of atavistic traits – can exeperimentally trun on latent homolgous developmental pathways
- Evo-Devo + evidence for homlogy in developmental pathways -- look at how ancestral pathways work
Example – make chicken that can grow teeth
Patterns of homology
Describe relationships among taxa –> Because homology is based on common ancestry it leads to specific nested patterns of traits among relation organisms
***Makes nested patterns of traits among organsims
- Nested rather than Vendiagram
- nested with each other
- Nested in the same sense as the standrad taxonomic hiearchy – refected in classifciation system
Where else can homology be seen
Have homology in DNA and protein sequences
***have the same nesting sturcture in genetics as we do in traits –> Genologic nesting
Have:
1. Orthologs
2. paralogs
Orthologs
Homolgous genes between species – across species
Paralogs
Homlogous genes that diverged within a lineage
***genologics relate to each other within sme species
- Genes related within ONE genome
What makes paralogs
Paralogs = result of gene duplication events – genologics related
- Gene + chromosome + Whole genome duplication event
What forms the basis for modern phylogentics
Orthologs + Paralogs – genologics related to eachother
Example recent gene duplication
A recent duplication of DNA sequences around nueron gene PMP22
***makes PMP-22 flanked on both sides by CMT1A repeat
- RT repeats that flanks = can be bad --> can end up losing a copy or end up with two during recombination - Nearby repeates make the region prone to mitotic probelms - Erroes in duplciation can lead to disease
Charcot-Marie tooth diease
Errors in duplication in PMP22 because of RT repeats that flank both sides
***loss of genes = get disease
When did duplication event in PMP-22 occur?
Occured sometimes bteween most recent common ancestor of homo + pan + gorllia and most recent common ancestor of homo and pan
***Repeat is found in homo + pan
- Pan = chimps + babones
- Humans + Chimps + Baboes = have copies
Why are PMP-22 repeate NOT convergent evolution
NOT convergent evolution because the traits are NOT adaptive
Why are PMP-22 repeate NOT convergent evolution
NOT convergent evolution because the traits are NOT adaptive
Two broad compoenents of Darwin’s ideas
- pattern – common Descent
- Process – mechanisms for how change arises over time –> process that generates diversity + process that connects diversity
Two overall changes that led to Darwin’s ideas
- Change in geologic thought
- Change in biologic thought
BOTH led to Darwin’s ideas on pattern
Intelecual setting for Darwin’s breakthroughts
- Break through on pattern in Geology (led to pattern)
- Breakthrough on pattern in biology (led to pattern)
- Breakthrough on Process – Malthus (led to process)
Malthus affect
Affected both Darwin + Wallace (Darwin + Wallace both read his work)
- Gave breakthrough to figure out process – mechanism for how change arises over time
Malthus (overall)
Was one of the first people to really think about teh mathamatic reality of human demography
- We would now call what he did “demography”
- he put numbers to issues of human populations – made many models
- He realized the remarkable power of unchecked population growth
***At the time people were thinking about mathamatic models for population growth
Demography
The study of population structure
Importance of Malthus
His line of thought was critical fro Darwin + Wallace idea of natural selection as the mechanism of change
- critical for coming up with MECHANISM
What did Malthus find?
He realized the remarkable numerical power of unchecked population growth
- Realized math potential in how reproduction oppertates that makes population growth unstable process
Showed that the way popultions grow through time = leads to massive growth UNLESS it is in check
Malthus opinion on population growth
He viewed this intrinsic property of populations (that unkecked growth) as a source of great human sufferering
What did Malthus finding show?
Means that something needs to hold population growth back – without check the population is unstable and unsustainable
Geometric/Exponential growth
Population is increasing by constant rate per individual over time
Geometric Vs. Exponetial growth
Geometric = discrete units of time
Exponential = continous time
***Difference between the two = how you keep track of time (discrete vs. continous time)
Arithmetic growth
Population increase by a constant amount over time
- Increase by a constant amount of individuals
***Different than versions where you add individuals based on the density of the popultion – this does not take into account the density of the population
Two types of growth
- Arithmetic
- Geometric/exponential
Arithmetic growth equation
Yt = Yo + XT –> JUST a linear equation
T = time
Overall – Number of individuals X Time (because adding the same number of individuals each time no matter how big or small popultion is)
- Each generation as set number (X) individuals added to the populton
Example – start with 1 person and add 2 people each generation
1 –> 3 –> 5 –> 7 –> 9
- Adding a fixed number each time
***Creates linear popultion growth (Always adding 2 individuals each time)
Exponentailo growth equation
Yt = Yo X X^t – for each generation t -> X offspring PER individual are added
- Adding X offspring per individual (Y)
Example – start with 1 individual and the popultion grows at a rate of 2 individuals per generation
1 –> 2 –> 4 –> 8 –> 16
***Much more rapid growth than arithmetic model
What type of growth is seen in popultions
Most is exponental growth –> seen in almost all real popultions in nature
- Seen by looking at reproduction
What type of growth did Malthus notice
Exponential growth – he notives this because we are NOT actually in an exponental model = means that there is some outside force that needs to be occuring
Who is included in growth models
We only look at growth from the persective of females –> THEN once do equations add back in males
- only look at females + female offspring
- Then you can apply the sex ratio for a given popultion (often assume 50:50) –> THEN can add males back in
Example – if in the end you calculate 32 indivudals THAT means 32 females –> Assuming 50:50 ratio - means your total popultion is 64 (32 + 32)
***Works IF we know things about the sex ratio
Malthus equations (image)
Fibonachi
Came up with sequnce to try and come up with a model for popultion growth – it was an attempt to put numbers to popultion before malthus
What did Malthus realize
He considered exponential growth from the perspective of human popultions and agrucultural surplus – he realized that growth was a BIG problem for humans
Malthus + agriculture
He realized that exponential growth was a BIG probelm for humans – what would it do to agruculture?
Asked if we could save up resources to suppert humans
Answer: NO – human technology can’t keep pace if going unchecked = he thought that we were always on the edge of catastrophe
- Mortality would be higher if growth rates go unchecked
- Even with increases in production – agriculturakl surpluses would still inevitably lead to famine
What stops us from being in a state of catastrophe
Mortaloty rates stop us from being in a state of catastrophe
- High mortality rates stops catastrophe – most individuals due before reproduction in order for popultions to stay stable
- What prevents us = high level of background morlatlities to counterect popultions from rapid exponetial growth
***If most don’t survive = more stable popultion
Does growth models hodl true for most animal popultions
YES – numbers held true for most animal popultions – also found that mortaloity is a fundemental property of most popultions
What explains constant growth (what explains ability to mainatin expo growth model and not be unstable)
Variation in survival + reprduction
Mathlthuianism + Darwin
In natural popultions and humans (at the time) most individuals born into the popultion don’t actually contribute to the next generation
***This view of a struggle for existance as intrinsic to all popultions = critical to the formation of Darwin;s ideas for a mechanism
***Because most of popultion isn’t surviving –> means there is a variation in success = got Darwin + Wallace thinking
Uniquness of Darwin’s mechanism
The idea of the mechansim was not completley unique –> the importance of Darwin’s work was in coupling the process with the pattern
- Widening the scope of selection to encompess all of the loiving world
STILL – he wasn’t the only one to come up with his conlcuoon –> wallace came up with the same idea – spurred Darwin to finally publish
Importance of Darwin
Coupling the process + Pattern
Orginal Word Model of NS
Based on 4 tesable posutalates
- Built on a set of 4 postulates that are testable to epxlain data
***All postulates are testable
Why did natural selection remain controversial
Because Biology and Math had to catch up
- We didn’t have a mechanism for inheritance –> hard to prove
- Mendle have us some idea –> use it for small traits BUT coupling mechansism of inheritance for complex variation too time to build understanding
- Anylzying variation in popultions – ststistics
- Answer to many probelms
What was more accpeted for darwin + wallace
The pattern was accepted by scientofic community + public within 10 years BUT the mechansim of natural selection was controversial for longer
- Mechanism of natural selection was not accepted for another 50 years
- Mechansim remained controversial because testing is hard to do
NS postulates
NS is simple due to 4 key postulates
***Each postulate is testable BUT tesing is not always easy
- Populations are variable – variation within populations
- Traits are heretible
- Variation in survivorship + reproductive sucess
- Surivivorship + reproductive success vary as a function of traits
Postulate #1 – Populations are varaible
Populations differ in:
1. Morphology – body shape + Size + Structure
2. Color (ex. Sgells of snails)
3. Physiology (Ex. Cold tolerance + metabolic variation)
4. behavior
5. Life history traits (Ex. Growth + development + number of offspring/gametes)
6. Immunity (Ex. being resistant to disease + pathogens)
***This is fairly intuative – easy to see
- Certainly seen in human populations (Ex. Distrubution of height – math shows amount of variation)
***Can see how selection drives varaition
Where can variation be seen?
- Seen in human popultions – Example is disribution of height (math shows the amount of variation)
- See genetic variation within popultion – can see varaition in genome
Example – HMHC antiogen protein in immune system- Gene in MHC = has over 1,000-2,000 allleles in human popultion
***Have varaition in physical (in phenotype) + vaiation in allele in genome
What is the hardest postulate to test
Postutlae #2 – traits are heretible
What do we mean in posulate #2 – traits are heretible
NOW we know about genetics BUT here we mean about heritablity = LOOKS across generation
Heretibility
Means that there is some connection between the phenotypes of one generation and the next
***Means that the offspring will look like the parents
- Means that there a function in offspring that is in the parents - makes many connections between phenotypes in offspring and parents
***Very hard to demonstrate/show
What do we mean by “traits are heretible”
If we think in discrete generations – what we mean is simply that the phenotypic distribuition of generation 2 is at least partially a function of the phenotypoic distribution of their parents
Complexity of heretiability
Heretabiloity = rather complex in practice
***A trait can have a clear genetic basis BUT not be heretible in a straight foward way at the popultion level
Example – Genetic dominence –> NOT negating heritability BUT comlicats it
***Means that the second generation looking like their parents is more complicated than “just looking the same” – because of complex heritability patterns
***Traits can be heretible BUT not in a straight foward mechanism
Example – dominence –> complicates the 1:1 parent phenotype:offspring phenotype
- complicates the fact that the next generation will look exactley like the parents
Why is postulate #2 hard to measure?
Because heretibility is complicated
Example of heretibility
- Look at heights – looks at the children/sibling heights vs. the average height of both parents
- Can see the mathamatic connection
- Explains genes
- Fits statistically significant line in parents vs. offspring
- Hard to do things to contril for envirnment variation
- Mesuring beak size in parents vs. offspring
- The relationship between the two could be because of genetics OR could be because of shared envirnmental factors
- En
Second reason why is it hard to test heretibility
Because envirnmental factors affect traits – the correltion between parents and offspring could be because of shared envirnment
Second reason why is it hard to test heretibility
Because envirnmental factors affect traits – the correltion between parents and offspring could be because of shared envirnment
Postulate #3 – variation in survivorship + reproductive sucess
***Very easy to see + testable
***This postulate is almost universally true in natural popultions
Exceptions to Posutlate #3
Cases where a popultion is in the midst of exponetal growth
***When it isn’t true it is transient – only occurs for a few generations
Example of times when not true:
1. Invasive species – if colonizing a new habitat = grow rapidly until it hits its limits
2. If bounding back from an epidemic
***The rapid growth does not last for long –> if it did it would become overrun with organisms – means that almost ALL of the time you can check off postualte #3
Example of popultion in exponetial growth
Hex crane – we started conserving them to ensure their survival –> they are in exponential growth pahse while they are getting higher BUT they are only able to do this because people are ensuring their survival
- Won’t last forever
Example where postualte #3 is not true
What types of popultions does Postulate #3 work for?
Works for R and K stradegy populations
R stadegy
Investment optimized to the number of offspring – faster replication = put more babies hoping to survive
Example – octopus
Example R stradegy
Octupus –> makes 0.25 million ocotopi each generation
- replication rate = 125,000 (for females only – 250,000/2)
- Each octopuc gets pretty large
***If they were in exposnetial growth and all octopus survive to reproduce (meaning there is no variation in surivival + reproductive sucess) THEN by generation 4-5 the octopu would exceed the mass of the earth
- This is the reason why differential survival + reproduction needs to be true
K investment stradegy
Investment optimized for care and or development of offspring
- Produce fewer offspring BUT hope all surive –> add more resources to make sure they do
Example – elephants
Example K stradegy
Elephants – If they all survived to reproduction – in 44 generations they whole earth would be elephants
- Means that even for the slowest growing organisms postulate #3 needs to be true (still need to have variation in survival + reproduction)
Most important postulate
postulate #4 – survivorship + reproductive vary as a function of traits
What do we mean in Postulate #4 – surovorship + reproduction vary as a function of traits
Means that variation in survival is mathamatically connected to varaition in traits
- Survive and reproduce as a function of varying traits
- means that rates of mortality and reproductive sucess are NOT uniformly distributed across the population in regard to certain phenotypes
- Means that individuals with a certain phenotyoe value are more likley to survive + reproduce
Example of uniformlity distributed
In the image – the trait is not affecting survival –> there is no diffrence in suvivorship between individuals with trait or without the trait
- In this case natural selection is not active
- Have uniform distribution
Uniform Distrubution = no correlation = failes the 4th postulate
Uniform distribution
probability of y does not vary as a function of x - everyone in the population has the same chance of surviving and reproducing, regardless of phenotype
***Means that natural selection is NOT active – fails 4th postulate
Not uniform Distribution
Image = not uniform distirbution – one trait value (individuals with certain traits is NOT surviving) BUT trait values in the center (individuals with different traits) are surviving
***have a difference between survivorship –> means that what trait you have matters for survival
- there is a relationship between trait and survival
- Trait = affects probability of survival
- here posulate #4 is true
Example where postulate #4 is true
Coat color in mice –> whether mice survive is based on coat color
In dark soil = dark coast allows you to camaflouge better = survive better
In light soil = want light coat
***There is a connection between coat color and liklihood of surviving
Example of Natural Selection
Gulls – In a field of Golden Rods
NOTE: many insects = specialists for golden rods –> Many inescts make a Gull on the Golden Rods
***Goldren Riods = well studied in evolutionary studies
Insects Making Gull
Gull = purely plant tissue
Insects induce it in the plant –> then insects lay egg in the plant and the plant secretes hormones to trick the plant to make a structure that benefits the insects
- The Vascular tissue = adds defensive compunds around the Gull - Making the Gull is ONLY costly to the plant --> the plant is really making a house for parasite - Affects plant replication - Gull = puts fitness cost on plant - Gull = hujacks the plants genome
Example – What shapes the evolution of Gall size
Look at 4 postulates:
1 – Is the Gall size variable –> YES
2 – Is the Gall size heritable –> YES
- Hard to test
3 – Do all flies continue to the next generation – is there variability in survivorship – YES
4 – Is fly survival and reproduction uniformly distributed – YES
- Look at natural history
***All 4 postulates are true = makes a relationship between probability of survival and size of gall = selection is occuring
Testing if gall size is hertibles
Grow clones (meaning that they have the same genotype) in greenhouse and look at parent vs. offspring
How do you know that all flies continue to the next generation
In 3 generations = it would be over 15 million flies if there was no diffreence in survivorship AND we know that most flies don’t move more than 25 meteres – since we do not have 15 million flies in 25 meters = know there there is differntial survival + reprduction
Seeing fly survival and reproduction is uniformly distributed
Look at Natural history + look at Gall size
***record gall size and open them up to record the fate of the fly larvea (look at gall size vs. survival)
Need to look at the parasotic insects that attck Gall flies
1. Beetle – most get attacked by beetle –> WITH beetles there is some varaition in survival BUT mostly the same atttacj rate no matter the Gall size –> Means that the attack rate IS uniformly distributed = there is no difference in survival because of Gall size = means natural sleection is NOT occur
- here survival rate is the same for all gall sizes
- Wasp species –> The probability of getting attacked by a wasp increase as gall size decreases
- at 25 nm you are almost immune to wasp –> Here there is a relationship between the trait and suvivorship = means that natural selection is occuring
- Not uniformly distrubuted = having the trait affects your survivorship = NS is occruing
Why doesn’t Gall size just continue to increase – why are they not all Huge Galles
Why is there NOT runaway selection
- Wasps are NOT the only source of mortality
Example – birds also each the galls (birds eat the insects in them)
- Birds go after the bigger galls (bigger galls have lower survival)
MEANS that there is selection in both directions –> the intermediate size is the best
Result: Get stabilization state – NOT getting runaway selection because NS is not just optimizing one thing at a time
- There is a difference acorss popultions + difference across years – NS process = go back and forth all of the time
- Looking at different locations and within the same feild in different years the gall sizes change and they change in different conditions –> NS regimes are NOT fixed through time – forces imposing NS change so have long term dynmanic shift
Runaway selection
When the traits just most so far from to be the most fit (Ex. Gall size just ciontniuing to increase to be HUGE galls)
Stabilizing Selection
Individuals with the intermediate trait values have the highest fitness –> When teh intermediate trait is favored
- Sleection won’t go in one direction forver because the end point is not the best – the best is something in the middle
Ex. Gall size – because bigger is good for bird protection but small is good for wasp protection = the intermediate size is the best
Physical Fitness + Darwinian Fitness
They can be related BUT they might not be
Fitness in Vernacular
Conjured a lot of meanings – Strength + Stamina + Speed
Darwinian Fitness
The extent to which an individual contributes to future generations
- Not neccesarily what we think of as “fitness”
***amount of individual you contribute to the subsequent generation
***Need to think of it in terms of LIFETIME reproductive output
Survival + Fitness
We often think of “survival of the fitest” BUT survival is not enough
***Survival is a neccessary compoennet of fitness BUT it is not enough for fitness
Survival = only ONE part of it –> Need to survive to the point of reproduction – survival is needed for fitness BUT also need reprouctive component (need repriductive sucess)
What is needed for fitness
- Survival
- Reproduction
NEED – survival + reproductive success
Firness = Survival –> Reproduction
Post reproduction survival in Fitness
AFTER reproduction – can still survive after reprpduction –> That survival might not have to do with fitness because you already reproduced the amount you will in your lifetime
***Shows that survival is NOT the only part of fitness – some types of survival might not even be part of fitness such as survival after reproduction
Components of Fitness
We can define many compennets of fitness (BUT they are organism soecific)
Example for sexual organism:
Surival –> Mating success –> Fecundity
- Need to survive to the point of reproduction
Fecundity
Number of offspring you produce + can include parenting sucess
- Includes parenting sucess IF offspring learn traits because then you arte keeping them alive
- This is NOT inclduing genes of offspring traits
***Part of mom’s fitness = how well she can protect her kids BUT her genes are not part of the kids fitness
Mating Sucess
Looking at traits that might contribute to mating sucess
Example – competition with males + locating a mate + co-population + fertlization
- You might have a moose that is good at getting a mate but his sperm doesnt work making his fitness zero
Is offspring survival part if fitness of parents
Depends of the traits in question – need to think about whose fitness it is
- Part of mom’s fitness = how well she can portect her kids (that is mom fitness) BUT part of kids fitness is based on the genes from mom
Fitness in life histories with multiple mating events
Need to think of it in terms of LIFETIME reproductive output
Have survival –> Mating success –> Fecundity –> GOES BACK to survival
KEY for seeing if trait affects fitness = does it affect lifetime reproductive sucess
***Fitness = might not only have a single round of reproduction – if life historiues with multiple mating events
Key for seeing if trait affects fitness
Does it affect lifetime reproductive success
Example Orthology
Duplication evnet in PMP22 gene – makes sense as homologs that arose in common ancvetro of human + chimp + baboes after split wioth gprilla
- Shared because of homlogy –> tells us about biological reality of relationships of organisms
Molecular homology
- Junk DNA
- Look at functional things that are homologous –> look at biochemical pathways
- Often have homologous biochemical pathways –> same genes for enzymatic function because of homologty
-Same mechanisms + pathways because inherited from a common ancestor
Example – Aquition of mitocondria - Many biochemical underpinning s of life were laid down a very very lomg time ago
- Often have homologous biochemical pathways –> same genes for enzymatic function because of homologty
Molecular homology = extent way beyond closley relate mamales
Why is Junk DNA good evidence for homology?
Good evicence because can’t be convergent evolution
Aquisistion of mitocondria
Example of molecular homology – occured because MRCA of all extant Eukaryotic organisms
- Homologous across ALL Eukaryotic
- Critical in history of life
- Impirtant molecular homology
Time in evolution – need to contemplate the time involoved
To know time = look at time scale for porcess in the world and then scale up
Example – whales (Time from evolutuon)
Mammal –> Whales = took 55 MY
- Huge chnage in physiology + Morphology
- 55 MY = brief in the hirtosy of the earth
- 55 million years vs. history of animal life → small – 10% of animal life as we know it
- Histiory if all animal life vs,. History of the earth → animals = very small part in history of the earth
History if form = very small – took all of the time befire to build all biochemical processes
ALL took tremednous amount of time – change from 1 generation to the next = can be scaled up to the history of life
- Diversity seen in animal life today = looking at huge time scale
Transional fossils misconception
People think that transtional fossiles = direct missing link
***They are not missing link they are just a branch between two points – represents a brant that has some chnages but not all
- Branching point shows things that are no longer alive BUT show us the order and where these things occured
Point of TF = that they tell us the order of events –> tell us the order of evolution – show us the order and where these things occured
When can population evolove
If the 4 postulates are trie
Exponetial growth Example – Aligator snapping turtle
Example of a popultion that people think might be slow growing – shows that they would still become unstable very fast
- Have potential for out of control growth (Expo growth) in population that we think would be slow
Prompt: Each female lays 15 eggs at a time (15 eggs per clutch)
- In the current popultion the ratio of males to females in the offspring is 2:1
Question – if we introduce a male and female turtle into the lake –> how many total (male + female) grandchilren will they have if all of the females survive to reproduce
Reminder = ONLY include females in the equations
We know:
- Yo (starting popultions) = 1 –> because only females are included in teh equation – start with one male and one female BUT only include the ONE female in equation
- T = 2 geneterations – because asking for grandchildren = Parents –> Children –> grandchildren = 2 generations
- X = 5 eggs –> Because we know that its is 15 TOTAl egges per clutch (which includes male and female eggs –> Apply the 2:1 ration = 10:5 males:females = 5 female eggs per clucth (ONLY inlude females in equation)
- yT= ?
Yt = 1 X 5^2 = 25 Females –> X:25 (2:1) –> 50:25 –> 50 + 25 = 75 – Answer: 75 total in 2 generations
- 75 grandturtles come from just one clutch of eggs in each generation
IN REALITY – a female thyat survives to adulthood has an everge lifespan of 70 years
- If a turtle as her first clutch at 12 = she has 58 clutches in her lifetime
MEANS her reprodctive rate = NOW 290 (Because 5 X 58 clutches) –> 290 female eggs in lifetime
THEN Yt = 1 X 290^2 = 84,100 female granturtles
apply 2:1 –> 252,300 total grandturtles
- If they all survived – in just 2 generations = 252,300 – know that this won’t actually happen because everyone surviving almost never happens
How should we think about fitness
Need to think about fitness as a whole
To think about fitness (consequnce of individual adding to gene pool) = need to think about survival and reproduction – need to think of BOTH survival AND reproduction
When we’re thinkning about traits and variation we need to ask “what are the conseqeunces of contributing to the gene pool in the next generation”
***Fitness is sometimes counter intuative
Fitness logic
Fitness is sometimes counterintuative – the biggest + stringest + fastest + feircest isn’t neccesarily the fittest
Example – Fitness of Gulls
- Can look at it in two ways they can get kills
1. humans shooting the seagulls –> here there are no traits that would protect them
- Whether they get hit = by chance –> there is no heritable traits that are under selections in this context
2. Using Trained raptors – they chase the individual –> maybe there is a trait tat plays a role in whether they get eaten by a falcon
- Can catagorize the dead bird based on muscle density (Have normal + More + less) – most of the indiviudals were normal but had some that were higher and some that were lower
RESULTS:
1. For the shooters – the probability of survival is the same –> therte is a unifrom distrubtion across trait values – survival is not impacted by muscle condition
2. For the falcones – still have the same muscle distribution across popultion BUT now the probability of survival is NOT the same
- poor muscle = less likley to survive (might be less agile + Slower)
- normal msucle = higher survival than the other two
- More musle = likley to get killed –> SHOWS that higher musclar physical fitness here DOES NOT EQUAL biologic fitness (Example of counterintuative to how we think of physical fitness)
Here – intermediate os the best = example of stable selection
Example #2 of counterintuative fitness – Dogs
Question – Which of these dogs has the highest fitness
Fitness = depends on the conetxt – can only define fitness in the answerment the organisms is currnetley in
Answer: We can’t know which will repdouce more just by looking at them – the actual condition of the organisms + their ability to interact in the envirnment doesn’t mean anything about reproductive sucess
- Fitness of the Left = zero – bevcause he has no testicles BUT we would not know that inofmration without bieng given it
- Fitness of the right is greater than 1 assuming it can breed
NOTE – need to keep in mind lietime repdouctive sicess
Example #3 of fitness – Dung beetle
Dung bettle fitnes can be counter intuative for reprductive sucess among fertile individuals
- The Dung beetle males = build tunnels for females and girad them – while the big heavily armored males are fighting the smaller hornless ones sneak into the tunnel and mate with the females = results in 2 stradegies for reproductive fitness
OVERALL – shows that fitness is NOT straight foward – shows that fitness is complicated and we need to keep that in mind
Here = have 2 forms of fitness:
1. Smaller (no horns) –> bypass the fighting males and sneak in
2. The bigger ones guard and then mate with females
***This helps explain why we still have smaller males – shows slection for one direction and the other
Key points regarding humans
- Wehn we talk about Darwinian fitness we are NOT making value judgements – we still have to think about lifetime reproductive sucess (and this is not always easy to preduct)
- If we make analogies to humans – to get fitness in humans = we just think about reproductive sucess
- We cannot make value judgements on phenotype –> way we use fitness = hard to seperate from the biologic definition
Misconceptions about evolution
- individuals evolve – REALITY = selection acts on individuals BUT individuals don’t evolove
- Natural sleection can see into the future – it cannot
- Selection adds more varaition – REALITY is that selection acts on existing varaition in popultions
- Selection results in perfection – NOT TRUE
- Selection favors complexity – NOT TRUE
- Being evolutionarily advancd – subjective
Level of evolution vs. Level of selection
Evolution = population level
- Evolution = allele change from one generation to teh next –> change in allele frequencey in a popultion over time = populatoions evolve
Selection = acts on individual – fitness is based on individual
Selection = acts on individual BUT indoividuals don’t evelopve populations eveleve
Change in individual
Change in individual IS NOT evolution – change in an individual is JUST development
Darwin vs. Lamark’s views
The crux of the difference between darwin vs. lamarsck was veiws on the mechnaism behind decent with modification
- Lamarck = change in indivual that is passed down