Evidence for Evolution

Es e t Ide
There is overwhelming evidence for the evolution of life on Earth.
Introduction
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of a species. The mechanism of evolution is
now well understood – it is natural selection. There is strong evidence for characteristics of
species changing over time. Biologists call this process evolution, evolution only concerns
heritable characteristics.
Evi c f o fo l
Fossils are preserved remains or traces of any organisms from the remote past: they can be direct
(body fossils: bones, teeth, shells…) or indirect (trace fossils: tooth marks, tracks, footprints…). The
fossil record is the sum of all discovered and undiscovered fossils and their relative placement in
rock, it provides the dimension of time to the study of evolution – the layer of rock in which a
fossil is found can be dated and therefore used to deduce the age of the fossil.
There are gaps in the fossil record due to:
● Special circumstances are required for fossilisation to occur (very few organisms become
fossils).
● Only hard parts of an organism are preserved (usually only fragments of remains are
discovered).
● Fossils can be damaged so that only fragments remain to be discovered.
Fossil records display the changes in characteristics in organisms. In most cases no fossils can be
found of organisms that do exist today. This suggests that the ancestral species evolved into the
modern species.
With limited fossil data, it can be difficult to discern the evolutionary patterns that result from
ancestral forms (‘missing links’).
Transitional fossils show the links between groups or species by exhibiting traits common to
both the ancestral group/species and its derived descendant group/species.
Archaeopteryx is a famous example of this (evidence for the evolution of birds from dinosaurs).
Evi c f o se t e b e n or ar fi al se t o
Selective breeding is the process by which humans breed animals and plants for particular traits.
Domestic breeds show great variation compared to wild populations, as only the individuals with
the most desirable traits are chosen to breed together. Wild populations are subject to only
natural variation. Cows have been selectively bred across many generations to produce offspring
with improved milk production or with increased muscle mass. Horses have been selectively bred
across many generations: race horses are bred to be leaner, lighter, taller, etc. while draft horses
are bred sturdier and stockier.
Evi c f o ho go s uc s
Comparative anatomy of groups of animals or plants shows certain structural features are basically
similar. Structures or anatomical features having similar basic structure as in other species said to
be homologous. The structural similarities imply a common ancestry, although they are used in
different species. This illustrates adaptive radiation since the basic structure adapted to different
niches. The pentadactyl limb in vertebrates is an example of a homologous structure. The pattern
of bones or a modification of it is present in all amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals:
● Human hands are adapted for tool manipulation (power vs precision grip).
● Bird and bat wings are adapted for flying.
● Horse hooves are adapted for galloping.
● Whale and dolphin fins are adapted for swimming.
Spe in
Within a population of any given species there will be genetic variation (variation which is
inheritable) that will be continuous and follow a normal distribution curve as the rate of change is
gradual and cumulative. If two populations of a species become geographically separated then
they will likely experience different ecological conditions, over time, the two populations will adapt
to the different environmental conditions and gradually diverge from one another.
As the genetic divergence between the related populations increases, their genetic compatibility
consequently decreases. Eventually, the two populations will diverge to an extent where they can
no longer interbreed if returned to a shared environment. When two populations can no longer
interbreed and produce fertile, viable offspring they are considered to be separate species.
The evolutionary process by which two related populations diverge into separate species is called
speciation.
Natural selection
Es e t Ide
The diversity of life has evolved and continues to evolve by natural selection.
Darwin’s theory of evolution
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was based on a combination of Lamarckian ideas and recent
fossil discoveries. He theorised that species living today had been changed over time and
stemmed from a single (or few) ancestral organisms. He noted that although populations have the
capacity to grow uncontrollably, limiting natural factors will restrict this growth. Organisms which
possess traits better suited to conditions would have an adaptive advantage and be more likely to
reproduce. These traits would hence become more common within the population and the
species would gradually change over time.
Inherited variation: There is genetic variation within a population which can be inherited.
Competition: There is a struggle for survival (species tend to produce more offspring than the
environment can support).
Selection: Environmental pressures lead to differential reproduction within a population
Adaptations: Individuals with beneficial traits will be more likely to survive and pass these traits on
to their offspring.
Evolution: Over time, there is a change in allele frequency within the population gene pool.

Variation
Natural selection depends on variation within populations - if all individuals in a population were
identical, there would be no way of some individuals being favoured more than others.
So r of va in
● Mutation is the original source of variation. New alleles are produced by gene mutation,
which enlarges the gene pool of a population.
Beneficial mutations change the gene sequence to create new variations of a trait.
Detrimental mutations truncate the gene sequence to abrogate the normal function of a trait
Neutral mutations have no effect on the functioning of the specific feature.
● Adaptations are advantageous characteristics of an individual for its way of life.
● More offspring are produced by the best adapted individuals while less well adapted
individuals die or produce fewer offspring.
● Adaptations/characteristics are passed onto offspring (inheritance).
● Natural selection increases the frequency of the better adaptations and decreases the
frequency of other characteristics. This leads to changes in characteristics within the
species.
In species that do not carry out sexual reproduction that only source of variation is mutation. It is
generally assumed that such species will not generate enough variation to be able to evolve
quickly enough for survival during times of environmental change.
 Adaptations
According to evolutionary theory adaptations develop by natural selection, not with the direct
purpose of making an individual suited to its environment. They do not develop during the lifetime
of one individual.
● Structural: Physical differences in biological structure.
● Behavioural: Differences in patterns of activity.
● Physiological: Variations in detection and response by vital organs.
● Biochemical: Differences in molecular composition of cells and enzyme functions.
● Developmental: Variable changes that occur across the lifespan of an organism.
Biological adaptations have a genetic basis (encoded by genes) and may be passed to offspring
when the parents reproduce. Organisms with beneficial adaptations will be more likely to survive
long enough to reproduce and pass on these genes.

Overproduction of o spring
Species tend to produce more offspring than the environment can sustainably support. There will
be competition for resources and not every individual will obtain enough to allow them to survive
and reproduce.

Di erential survival and reproduction

In the struggle for existence the less well-adapted individuals tend to die or fail to reproduce and
the best adapted tend to survive and produce many offspring, this is natural selection. Due to
natural selection, the proportion of different alleles will change across generations:
● Beneficial alleles improve reproductive prospects (more offspring), they are more likely to
be passed onto future generations.
● Detrimental alleles result in fewer offspring and hence are less likely to be present in
future generations.

Antibiotic resistance
Antibiotic resistance is due to genes in bacteria and so it can be inherited.
● There has been very widespread use of antibiotics, both for treating diseases and in
animal feeds used on farms.
● Bacteria can reproduce very rapidly, with a generation time of less than an hour.
● Populations of bacteria are often huge, increasing the chance of a gene for antibiotic
resistance being formed by mutation.
● Bacteria can pass genes on to other bacteria in several ways, including using plasmids,
which allow one species of bacteria to gain antibiotic resistance genes from another
species.
Golden staph can cause infections to the skin (lesions and boils) as well as more serious infections
(pneumonia, meningitis). Historically, these infections were treated using the antibiotic methicillin.
Bacterial strains developed that were resistant to this antibiotic. Medical practitioners now
prescribe alternate antibiotic agents to treat infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus.
Classification of biodiversity
Es e t Ide
Species are named and classified using an internationally agreed system.
The binomial system
The binomial system of nomenclature is the formal system by which all living species are
classified (taxonomy).
The credit for devising our modern system of naming species is given to the Swedish biologist
Carl Linnaeus who introduced a system of two part names in the 18th century. This stroke of
genius was the basis for the binomial system that is still in use today.
● It allows for the identification and comparison of organisms based on recognised
characteristics.
● It allows all organisms to be named according to a globally recognised scheme
● It can show how closely related organisms are, allowing for the prediction of evolutionary
links.
● It makes it easier to collect, sort and group information about organisms.
The first name is the genus name. A genus is a group of species that share certain characteristics.
The second name is the species or specific name.
● The genus name begins with a capital letter and the species name with a lower-case letter.
● A binomial is shown in italics.
● After a binomial is used in a text, it can be abbreviated to the initial letter of the genus
name with the full species name.
● The earliest published name for a species is the correct one.

The hierarchy of taxa

Taxonomy is the science involved with classifying groups of organisms on the basis of shared
characteristics.
Every species is classified into a genus. Genera are grouped into families. Families are grouped
into orders, orders into classes and so on up to the level of kingdom or domain. The taxa form a
hierarchy, as each taxon includes taxa from the level below. Going up the hierarchy, the taxa
include larger and larger numbers of species, which share fewer and fewer features.

The three domains

Previously, all living organisms were classified into five kingdoms. This included prokaryotes being
placed in one kingdom and eukaryotes were split-up into the remaining four kingdoms.
Recent evidence from genetic studies of ribosomal RNA has shown that "prokaryotes" are far
more diverse than anyone had suspected. Ribosomal RNA is found in all organisms and evolves
slowly so is a good way to track evolution over long time periods.

Natural classification
Natural classification groups together species that share a common ancestor from which they
evolved and the identification of species is easier. This is called the Darwinian principle of
common descent. A disadvantage of such schemes is that they are highly mutable and tend to
change as new information is discovered.
It is not always clear which groups of species do share a common ancestor, so natural
classification can be problematic. In the past, natural classification was attempted by looking at as
 many visible characteristics as possible, but new molecular methods have been introduced and
these have caused significant changes to the classification of some groups.

Natural classification
Dichotomous keys can be used to help identify the species, consists of a numbered series of
pairs of descriptions.
Pla p la
Bryophytes (mosses, Filicinophytes Coniferophytes Angiospermophytes
hornworts and (ferns) (conifer shrubs and (flowering plants)
liverworts) trees)

Leaves, roots No roots, but structures Roots present. Roots, present. Leaves and roots are
and stems similar to root hairs Short non-woody Woody stems. variable in structure.
called rhizoids. stems. Leaves are usually Stems may be woody
Mosses have simple Leaves are usually narrow with a thick (shrubs and trees)
leaves and stems. divided into pairs waxy cuticle
Liverworts have a of leaflets
flattened thallus

Vascular tissue None Yes Yes Yes

Reproductive Spores produced in Spores produced Seeds develop from Seeds develop from
structures capsules, which develop in sporangia on ovules in female ovules in ovaries, inside
at the end of a stalk the underside of cones. Male cones flowers. Seeds are
the leaves produce pollen dispersed by fruits which
develop from the ovaries

Ani p la
The kingdom Animalia can be subdivided into two main groups – invertebrates (no backbone) and
vertebrates (most chordata).
● Invertebrate phyla: porifera, cnidaria, platyhelmintha, mollusca and arthropoda.
● All vertebrates belong to the phylum chordata, however not all chordata are vertebrates.

Porifera Cnideria Platylhelmintha Annelida Mollusca Arthropoda Chordata

(sponges) (corals, (flatworms) (earthworms, (oyster, (ant, (fish, birds,
jellyfish) leeches) snails, scorpion, mammals)
octopus) crab)

Symmetry None Radial Bilateral Bilateral Bilateral Bilateral Bilateral

Segmentation None None None Very Non-visible Segmented Segmented

segmented segmentation

Digestive No mouth Mouth but Mouth but no Mouth and Mouth and Mouth and Mouth and
tract or anus no anus anus anus anus anus anus

Other Porous, Stinging Flattened body Bristles Most have Exoskeleton, Notochord,
features attached cells, often shell made of jointed hollow
to rocks, tentacles present CaCO3 appendages dorsal
filter nerve cord,
feeder (some
 have)
pharyngeal
sites

Mammals Birds Reptiles Amphibians Fish

Limbs 4 pentadactyl 4 pentadactyl 4 pentadactyl 4 pentadactyl Fins

limbs limbs, 2 limbs limbs limbs
modified as
wings

Gas Exchange Lungs with Lungs with Lungs with Simple lungs Gills
alveoli parabronchial extensive with small
tubes folding internal folds
and moist
surfaces

Reproduction Internal Internal Internal External External fertilisation

fertilisation, fertilisation, fertilisation, soft fertilisation in in most species.
give birth to hard shells shells around water, protective
live young. around the egg eggs. jelly around
Mammary eggs. Larval
glands stage lives in
secrete milk water.

Other features Hair growing Feathers Dry scaly Soft moist Scales grow from the
from the skin growing from impermeable permeable skin skin. A single gill slit
and teeth skin. Beak but skin and simple and swim bladder for
including no teeth teeth (no living buoyancy.
living tissue tissue)

Cladistics
Es e t Ide
The ancestry of groups of species can be deduced by comparing their base or amino acid
sequence.
Clades
Species can evolve over time and split to form new species. A group of organisms evolved from a
common ancestor is called a clade.
Clades include all the species alive today, together with the common ancestral species and any
species that evolved from it and then became extinct.
Ide f g me r of a c a
The most objective evidence comes from base sequences of genes or amino acid sequences of
proteins. Species that have recent common ancestor can be expected to have few differences in
base or amino acid sequence.
Cladograms
A cladogram is a tree diagram showing the most probable sequence of divergence in clades. The
branching points on cladograms are called nodes. Nodes denote a speciation event when a
common ancestor splits into two, or more, species. The fewer the number of nodes between two
groups the more closely related they are expected to be. Cladograms are mostly based on DNA
base sequences or the amino acid sequences in a protein. Software applications combine
multiple sequences to find the most probable pattern of divergence.
The construction of cladograms and identification of clades is known as cladistics.
Differences in the base sequence of DNA and therefore in the amino acid sequence of proteins
are the result of mutations. There is evidence that mutations occur at a roughly constant rate so
they can be used as a molecular clock. The number of differences in sequence can be used to
deduce how long ago different groups split from a common ancestor.
Rec s fi a n
In the light of new evidence some cladograms have been merged, others have been divided and
in some cases species have been transferred from one group to another. The new classifications
based on cladistics are likely to be much closer to a truly natural classification so their predictive
value will be higher.
Analogous and homologous traits
● Homologous structures are similar because of similar ancestry.
● Analogous structures are similar because of convergent evolution.
Problems in distinguishing between homologous and analogous structures have sometimes led to
mistakes in classification in the past. For this reason the morphology of organisms is now rarely
used for identifying members for a clade and evidence from base or amino acid sequences is
trusted more.