SCIENCE DEPARTMENT

TENTH GRADE
BIOLOGY
UNIT 1: WHERE DID WE COME FROM?
UNIT 2: AN EVOLVING ENEMY

EVOLUTION ESSENTIALS
Students should be able to:

 Define biological evolution and distinguish it from other forms of non-evolutionary change in organisms.
 Examine the evidence for common descent focusing on genetic (DNA) homologies between species.
 List the four observations that leads to natural selection in populations.
 Explain how natural selection causes evolutionary change.
 Describe how natural selection works on allele frequency in a population and does not result in “perfectly adapted”
organisms or drive organisms towards some ideal state.

BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
• Change in the characteristics of a biological population that occurs over the course of generations

– Inherited via genes

Non-evolutionary changes

• Due to short-term environmental changes

• Not genetic

– E.g., change in average dress size in women over the past 50 years

MICROEVOLUTION MACROEVOLUTION
Changes that occur within a biological population The accumulation of microevolutionary changes that results in the origin
– Easily observed of a new species
– Noncontroversial – Occurs slowly over long periods of time
– Controversial among non-biologists
• Examples: • Example:
– Pesticide resistance in crop-eating
insects
– Antibiotic resistance in infectious
bacteria
THEORY OF EVOLUTION (CHARLES DARWIN):
All species present on Earth today are descendants of a single common
ancestor, and all species represent the product of millions of years of
accumulated microevolutionary changes.
• Modern animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and other living things are
related.

• Living things, through various processes, have been diverging

from a common ancestor since life originated.

• Theory of common descent: All life shares a common ancestor.

• Controversial part of the theory of evolution

Biological evidence for common ancestry

• Linnaean classification Molecular homologies: similarities in DNA sequences
• Anatomical homology • Closely related species have more similar genes.
• Vestigial traits – Birds in the same genus have more recent
common ancestors and more similar DNA
• Developmental homologies
sequences.
• Molecular homology
– Distantly classified birds have less similar
• Biogeography DNA.

• Fossil record
DARWIN’S THEORIES FROM THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES:
Theory of common descent:
• All species descended from a single ancestor

• Accepted by most scientists within 20 years

THEORY OF NATURAL SELECTION:

• Explains how organisms evolved from a common ancestor

• Took 60 more years to be accepted by scientists

Natural selection: process by which populations adapt to their changing environment

• Different levels of survival and reproduction of individuals in a population

Results in evolutionary change

Natural selection
• Results in the evolution of pesticide resistance in lice

Natural selection: the process by which physical or behavioral traits of organisms leading to increased survival or
reproduction become more common in a population and less favorable traits are lost.
• May result in new species development

– Due to accumulated changes within populations

• Inevitable consequence of competition for survival

• Most important cause of evolution

• Passive process determined by variation and environments.

DARWIN’S OBSERVATIONS
1. Individuals within populations vary.

Variation seen in human and non-human populations

1. Appearance (e.g., coat color in wolves)

2. Blooming time in flowers

3. Amount of caffeine in coffee plant seeds

Variant: each different type of individual in a population

2. Some of the variation among individuals can be passed on to their offspring.

3. Populations of organisms produce more offspring than will survive.

4. Survival and reproduction are not random.

Subset of individuals who survive and reproduce is not an arbitrary group.

Fitness: relative survival and reproduction of one variant

Adaptation: traits that increase individual fitness in an environment

Individuals with adaptations for a particular environment are more likely to survive and reproduce.

Darwin’s inference: Natural selection causes evolution.

• Result of natural selection

– Favorable inherited variations tend to increase in frequency.

– Unfavorable variations tend to be lost

– Evolution: A change in the traits of individuals in a population over generations.

TUBERCULOSIS FITS DARWIN’S OBSERVATIONS

1. Organisms in the populations vary. Bacterial variants of M. tuberculosis that resist antibiotics exist.

2. The variation among organisms can be passed on to offspring. The genes for antibiotic resistance are passed to
other bacteria.

3. More organisms are produced than survive. Antibiotics eliminate most of the bacteria in the infected individual.

4. An organism’s survival is not random. Bacteria with antibiotic resistance are more likely to survive and reproduce.
THE MODERN SYNTHESIS:
The union between genetics and evolution; predicated on genetic principles
• Genes are segments of genetic material with information about protein structure.
• Actions of proteins within an organism determine physical traits.
• Different versions of the same gene are alleles, and variation in physical traits is due to variation in alleles.
• Different alleles for the same gene arise through mutation.
• Half of the alleles carried by a parent are passed to their offspring through their egg or sperm.

MUTATION AND NATURAL SELECTION:

COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS OF NATURAL SELECTION:
• Three categories

– The relationship between the individual and the population

– The limitations on the traits that can be selected

– The ultimate result of selection