Ch 13 Study Guide

Vocabulary
Evolution
Darwin
Populations
Rock/Fossil Record
Homology
Natural Selection
Common Ancestor
Quiz
15 M/C
1 Hardy Weinberg Problem
Terms/Ideas
1. Evolution
2. Natural Selection
3. Homology/Homological Structures
4. Evolutionary Tree
5. Population
6. Mutation
7. H-W Criteria
8. Bottle Neck Effect (Problems we created in the H-W simulations)
9. Founder Effect
10.Gene Flow
11.Alleles and Evolution
12.Adaptation
13.Phylogenic Trees (How to read)
FRQ
H-W Problem
-Calculator
-Know how to set-up a problem
-How to use formulas
Darwin History (Low Yield):
-At the time most scientists accepted the views of Aristotle, who generally held that
species are fixed.
-Judeo-Christian culture strengthened this

-At the age of 22, Darwin set sail on HMS Beagle, a survey ship preparing for a long
expedition to chart the South American coast.

-During the 5-year voyage, Darwin observed his environment.

-Noted characteristics of plants and animals were suited for their unique
environment
(Many of his observations indicated the geographic proximity is a better predictor of
relationships/similarities among organisms than similarity of environment.

Galapagos Islands
-Darwin was intrigued by the geographic distribution of organisms.

-Animals were not found elsewhere

-Islands were isolated
(These animals resembled South American species but were different)

-Principles of Geology, by Charles Lyell

-Told Darwin the fossils he found high up could have been lifted up from sea
level by natural forces.

By the time Darwin returned to Great Britain, he doubted that Earth and all its living
organisms had been specially created only a few thousand years earlier.
-He concluded from his observations that present-day species are the
descendants of ancient ancestors that they still resemble in some ways. Over time
differences gradually accumulate through a process called “descent with
modification”. This was his phrase for evolution.
-Darwin did not create the idea of evolution, but he was the first to provide a
scientific mechanism for how life evolves.
-In a process he called natural selection: individuals with certain traits are
more likely to survive and reproduce than individuals who do not have those traits.

-He hypothesized descendants of ancestral populations spread into various habitats

over time. They accumulated diverse modifications or adaptations that fit their
specific environment.

Scientists regard Darwin’s concept of evolution by means of natural selection as a

theory: A widely accepted explanatory idea that is broader in scope than a
hypothesis.

Evolution: The idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that
were different from present-day ones.

(With our current understanding of how his mechanism for evolution works, we
extend his definition of evolution to include “genetic changes in a population from
generation to generation”)

Evolution:
-The idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were
different from present-day ones.
-Adaptation, diverse modifications
Adaptation is not caused by natural selection events but happens because adaptation gives
advantages to certain individuals who thus can survive those natural selection events.

Adaptation is not evolution.

-Adaptation creates the evolution

-Variation is a step in evolution, not evolution

Adaptation is due to variance in the population and new species comes about because the adaptation
allowed the “original” adapted species to survive a natural selection events and thus reproduce.

-Natural Selection, The scientific mechanism that Darwin proposed for how life
evolves. Individuals with certain traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than
individuals who do not have those traits.
He hypothesized that as the descendants of ancestral populations spread into various habitats
over time, they accumulated diverse adaptations.
-Darwin thought adaptation had no gene/internal factors/was just from
environment/natural selection events.
- “Natural Selection Events” includes an earthquake, which kills individuals
randomly, and a genotype-associated disease, which kills individuals selectively,
both are considered natural selection events.

Genetic Variation
-Creates different phenotypes
Can come:
Mutation
Sexual Isolation
Gene Flow

This leads to natural selection.

Then sexual reproduction
Evolution
-Gene pool changes
Homology and Homological Structures
-Fossils, imprints or remains of organisms that lived in the past-document
differences between past and present organisms and the fact that many species
have gone extinct.
-The organic substances of a dead organism usually decay rapidly, but hard
parts of an animal that are rich in minerals, such as the bones, teeth, and shells
may remain fossils.
-Some fossils are not actual remnants of organisms, but are casts formed
when the dead organism captured in sediment decomposes and leaves an empty
mold that is later filled by minerals dissolves in water. The minerals harden, making
a replica of the organism.
-Rare cases, the entire organism is encased in a medium that prevents the
decomposition of the body.

Many fossils are found in fine-grained sedimentary rocks. New layers of sediment
cover older ones and compress them into layers of rock called strata.
-Strata (Singular, stratum), layers of rock.
-The fossils in a particular stratum provide a glimpse of some of the organisms that
lived in the area at the time the later formed
-Younger strata on top of older ones. Relative ages of fossils can be
determined by the layer in which they are found.

-The fossil record, the chronicle of evolution over millions of years of geologic time
engraved in the order in which fossils appear in rock strata-is incomplete.

-In The Origin of Species, Darwin predicted the existence of fossils of transitional
forms, linking very different groups of organisms.
-Ex: He hypothesized that whales evolved from land mammals. If this
hypothesize is correct, then fossils show a series of changes in a lineage of
mammals adapted to fully aquatic habitat.
-His hypothesize was correct (proven many years later)
-His concept was correct.
A second type of evidence for evolution comes from analyzing similarities among
different organisms.
-A result of evolution, related species can have characteristics that have an
underlying similarity yet function differently.
-Similarity resulting from common ancestry is known as homology.
(Darwin cited the anatomical similarities among vertebrate forelimbs as evidence of
common ancestry)
-Anatomical similarities in different organisms are called homologous structures –
features that often function differently but are structurally similar because of
common ancestry.
Darwin’s boldest hypothesis was that all life-forms are related. Molecular Biology
provides strong evidence for this claim: All life forms use the same genetic language
of DNA and RNA, and the genetic code is essentially universal.
-Likely that all species descended from common ancestor that used this code.

Comparing early stages of development in different animal species reveals

similarities not visible in adult organisms.

Some homologies are “leftover” structures. These vestigial structures are remnants
of features that served important functions in the organism’s ancestors.
-Little to no importance to the organism now.
-Can also retain genes that have lost their functions now.

Evolutionary Tree
Darwin was the first to view the history of life as a tree, with multiple branchings
from a common ancestral trunk to the descendant species at the tips of the twigs.
-These patterns of descent are represented today with an evolutionary tree.
-Homologous structures, both anatomical and molecular, can be used to determine
the branching sequence of such a tree.
-Evolutionary trees are hypotheses reflecting our current understanding of patterns
of evolutionary descent.

Now that we have learned about Darwin’s view of evolution as descent with
modification, lets examine the mechanism he proposed for how life evolves-natural
selection ->

Natural Selection as the Mechanism of Evolution (Low Yield for Test/Study Last)
Darwin’s greatest contribution to biology was his explanation of how life evolves.

He thought species formed gradually over long periods of time. He knew he would
not be able to study the evolution of new species directly from observation.
He did have a way to gain insight into the process of incremental change – the practices used by plant
and animal breeders.

-Artificial selection, the selective breeding of domesticated plants and animals to

promote the occurrence of desirable traits in the offspring – was the key to
understanding evolutionary change

He learned artificial selection has two essential components, variation and

heritability.
-Variation, differences.
-Heritability, the transmission of a trait from parent to offspring.
Darwin reasoned that if artificial selection can bring about so much change in a relatively short period
of time, then natural selection could modify species considerably over a long period of time.

3 Key point about evolution by natural selection:

-Although natural selection occurs through interaction between individual organisms
and the environment, individuals do not evolve. Rather, it is the population that
evolves over time as adaptive traits become more common in the group and other
traits change or disappear.
-2nd, natural selection can only amplify or diminish heritable traits.
-3rd, evolution is not goal direct; it does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms.
Whereas artificial selection is a deliberate attempt by humans to produce
individuals with specific traits, natural selection is the result of environmental
factors. A trait favorable in one situation can be useless in others.

(Look at 13.7 for a walkthrough of evolution)

13.8 Mutation + Sexual Reproduction produces the genetic variation that makes
evolution possible.
In The Origin of Species Darwin provided evidence that life on Earth has evolved
over time, and he proposed that natural selection, in favoring some heritable traits
over others, was the primary mechanism for that change.
But he could not explain the cause of variation among individuals nor how
they were passed down from parent to offspring.
-Not all variation(s) in a population is heritable.
-Only the genetic component of variation is relevant to natural selection.
-Many characteristics that vary in a population result from the combined effect of
several genes.

-New alleles originate by mutation, a change in genetic information.

-Thus, mutation is the ultimate source of genetic variation that serves as raw
material for evolution.
-One rare occasions, a mutated allele may actually improve the adaptation of an
individual to its environment and enhance its reproductive success.
Ex:

-Mutations that affect a protein’s function will probably be harmful

-Chromosomal mutations that delete, disrupt, or rearrange many gene loci at once
are almost certain to be harmful.
But duplication of a gene or small pieces of DNA through errors in meiosis can
provide an important source of genetic variation.

-Fresh assortments of existing alleles arise every generation from three random
components of sexual reproduction: crossing over, independent orientation of
homologous chromosomes at metaphase I or meiosis, and random fertilization.
13.9 Evolution occurs within populations.
A common misconception about evolution is that individual organisms evolve during
their lifetimes.
It is true natural selection acts on individuals: Each individual’s combination
of traits affects their survival and thus reproductive success. But the evolutionary
impact of natural selection is only apparent in the changes in a population of
organisms over time.

Population: A group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area and
can potentially interbreed.
-We can measure evolution as a change in the prevalence of certain heritable traits
in a population over a span of generations.
-Different populations of the same species may be so geographically separated from
each other that no genetic material is ever exchange, or very little.

Gene pool, which consists of all copies of every type of allele at every locus in all members of
the population.
- Although individual humans (and all diploid organisms) can only have two alleles for a given
gene
-For many loci, there are two or more alleles in the gene pool.

- they contain 2 or more alleles for each gene

When the relative frequencies of alleles in a population change like this over a number of
generations, evolution is occurring on its smallest scale. Such a change in a gene pool is often
called microevolution.
Ex:

13.10 Hardy Weinberg

The shuffling of alleles that accompanies sexual reproduction does not alter the genetic makeup
of the population. This condition is known as the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.
-Baseline for a constant population without evolutionary forces acting upon it

P+q = 1
-P is the dominant allele frequency in the population
-q is the recessive allele frequency in the population
-Can be equal or uneven

Genotype Frequencies

Homozygous Dominant Heterozygous Homozygous Recessive

-If a population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, allele and genotype frequencies will remain
constant generation after generation.
13.12 Mechanisms of Microevolution
Deviations from the 5 conditions for H-W equilibrium can alter allele frequencies in a population
(microevolution)

Although new genes and new alleles originate by mutation, these random and rare events
probably change allele frequencies little within a population of sexually reproducing organisms.

The three main causes of evolutionary change:

-Natural selection
-Genetic drift
-Gene flow

Natural Selection
H-W Equilibrium Conditions say no natural selection – that all individuals in a
population be equal in ability to reproduce – is probably never met in nature.

Genetic Drift
The frequencies of alleles will be more stable from one generation to the next when
a population is large. In a process called genetic drift, chance events can cause
allele frequences to fluctuate unpredictably from one generation to the next.
-The smaller the population, the more impact genetic drift is likely to have.
-Two situations in which genetic drift can have a significant impact on a population
are those that produce the bottleneck effect and the founder effect.

Bottleneck Effect
Catastrophes such as hurricanes, floods, or fires may kill many individuals, leaving a
small surviving population that is unlikely to have the same genetic makeup as the
original population.
-Such a dramatic reduction in population size is called a bottleneck effect.
-After a population is drastically reduced, genetic drift may continue for many
generations until the population is again large enough, for fluctuations due to
chance, to have less of an impact.
-Even if a pop. That has passed through a bottleneck ultimately recovers its size, it
may have low levels of genetic variation – a legacy of the genetic drift that occurred
when the pop. was small.
B.N. effect cause by:
Disease
Natural Events
Natural Selection Events

Founder Effect
Genetic drift is also likely when a few individuals colonize an island or other new
habitat, producing the founder effect.
-The smaller the group, the less likely that the genetic makeup of the
colonists will represent the gene pool of the larger population they left.
-Explains the relatively high frequency of certain inherited disorders among some
human pop. establish by a small number of colonists.

Gene Flow
Allele frequencies in a pop. can also change as a result of gene flow, by which a
population may gain or lose alleles when fertile individuals move in or out of a
population or when gametes are transferred between populations.
-It tends to reduce differences between populations.

Phylogenic Trees

A phylogenetic tree, also known as a phylogeny, is a diagram

that depicts the lines of evolutionary descent of different
species, organisms, or genes from a common ancestor.