Washburn University An Interactive Presentation by

Department of Physics and Astronomy Dr. Tambra L. Eifert

Life and Evolution

Historical Geology
 What is Life?
• Genetic, biological, and fossil evidence
shows that, for over 3.5 billion years, life
has evolved, diversified, and changed from
the oxygen-producing cyanobacteria of the
Precambrian time to the first organisms
that set foot on land which eventually led
to the higher life forms that exist today.
• This astonishing feat has been achieved by
Evolution.
• What is life? Life can be defined as a
condition in which organic (carbon derived),
animate matter is distinguished from
inorganic, inanimate matter by its ability to
renew its complex, highly ordered
structure.
 Change, Growth, and Reproduction
• This includes a c a p a c i t y for change, growth, and reproduction, with
functionality maintained until death, when its constituents disperse back
into the environment as a form of r e c y c l i n g .

tree-budding leaves mature leaves during summer dying leaves during fall
 Maintaining Life
• In order to
maintain itself,
life must be able
to get energy
and raw
materials from
the environment
as well as
manufacture
everything
necessary for
growth, repair,
and replication.
 Carbon and Other Elements

• The only element that is

known to form living
structures is c a r b o n , C
which can combine with
itself and other
elements (amino acids),
notably nitrogen,
oxygen, and hydrogen,
to form molecules of
great diversity and
complexity.
 Four Main Groups
• Four main groups of
organic carbon
compounds are found in
living organisms:
1. carbohydrates and
good fats, which supply
energy;
2. proteins, but from
3. amino acids, which
form structural tissue
(right photo); and
4. nucleic acids, the basic
components of genes.
Note: Omega-3 fatty acids are essential for good
health, especially heart health.
 Theory of Evolution
• What is evolution? Evolution
is a scientific theory that Genetic Changes Over Time
states that plants and animals
change genetically over time,
modifying and adapting over
generations in response to the
demands of Earth’s changing
environments.
• This biological process
includes:
• 1. reproduction
• 2. diversification
Modifying and Adapting Over Generations
• 3. adaptation
 Charles Darwin
• On December 27, 1831,
Charles Darwin set sail from
England as an unpaid
naturalist and friend
companion for the captain of
the H.M.S. Beagle.
• Trained as a clergyman,
Darwin at the time of his
departure believed in the
biblical account of creation
and the fixity of species.
• By the time he returned in
1836, his views had changed
considerably, though he still
saw the hand of God at work.
 Origin of Species
• Darwin kept detailed notes
and made paintings and
sketches of the plants,
animals, and fossils he saw
on the voyage.
• In 1859, long after his return
to England, Darwin published
his observations and ideas in
a book called On the Origin
of Species by Means of
Natural Selection.
• He waited this long to
publish his findings because
he was concerned about the
uproar it might – and did –
cause.
 Natural Selection
• In his book, Darwin outlined a
hypothesis of natural selection to
explain how evolution had
occurred.
• He proposed that new species
develop from existing ones by a
gradual process of change
through inheritable
characteristics.
• All present-day organisms are
descendants of different kinds of
organisms that existed in the
past, whose populations slowly
changed through adaptation to So, as in the case of this natural selection
changing environmental cartoon, it may be in favor for a species to be
conditions. different from the rest of the group.
 Natural Selection
• Natural selection is a
key evolutionary
process, brought
about by the survival
of organisms best
suited to their local
environments: “the
survival of the fittest”.
• View this video:
• http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=wxDOp Every cell is a triumph of natural selection.
AM2FrQ
 Arms and Flippers
• Anatomy often reveals a
shared ancestry between
species.
• For instance, a
chimpanzee’s arm looks
very different from a
dolphin’s flipper, but the
sequence from the
shoulder of a single
humerus bone followed
by a paired radius and
ulna and a series of wrist
and finger bones can be
identified in both
animals.
 Encoded Chromosomes
• Almost every cell of Chromosomes
every living organism, Cytoplasm and DNA
from single-celled Nucleus
bacteria to whales, to
humans, has its own set
of molecular
instructions.
• The function of each cell
is encoded in
chromosomes: the
threadlike part of a cell
that carries hereditary
information in the form
Cell membrane
of genes.
 Linked by Four Different Bases
• Each human cell contains
between 20,000 and 25,000 Codes are
DNA: recorded in
genes, each with its own set the DNA.
of instructions responsible for Bases
arranged DNA
particular characteristics.
in pairs
• The code is recorded mainly in
the form of a molecule called
DNA, which includes
chemicals called bases
arranged in pairs. molecule chemicals
• A gene is encoded by a
specific sequence of base
pairs.
 The Spiral of Life
• Central to the Epic of
Evolution is biological Biological
Evolution
evolution, which gives rise
to the great diversity and
underlying unity of all life.
• And at the heart of
biological evolution is DNA.
• Since life has emerged over
3.5 billion years ago, similar DNA

patterns of DNA have been

spiraling through all living
creatures, including our
earliest single-celled
ancestors -- bacteria.
 What Drives Evolution?
• So, what drives
evolution?
• Evolution is fueled
primarily by the processes
of s e l e c t i o n and
competition.
• These act upon species,
which respond by having
offspring that contain
inherited variations.
• For example, this “rhino”
beetle diversifies into
many different species,
thus providing inherited
variations. European Rhinoceros Beetle
 More Offspring than Needed
• Most species tend to
produce more offspring
than can survive.
• Natural selection favors
and promotes the
“survival of the fittest”:
i.e. those best adapted
to the physical and
biological environment,
such as a particular
climate or escaping a
predator.
 Adaptability: Cause & Effect
• Without adaptability, life would
never have moved out of the
waters.
• However, even adaptability is
largely a result of c a u s e and
effect.
• **Life cannot predict a future
need. **Instead, new traits are
produced in individuals by
genetic variation (example:
tuning in on a radio station) and
mutation (when random
changes in genetic code are
introduced, for example by
errors in copying).
So, what do you see?
 Pareidolia
• Pareidolia (pair-i-doe-lee-uh) is a
phenomenon in which humans are
psychologically programmed to see
faces in vague or random stimuli.
• The late Carl Sagan hypothesized that
as a survival technique, human beings
are hard-wired from birth to identify
the human face.
• The evolutionary advantages of being
able to discern friend from foe with
split-second accuracy are numerous.
• Those who ignored the stimuli were
“Things that go bump in the night” remind
more likely to be predated and thus
us of our early ancestral roots.
not pass on their genes.
 Favorable Conditions
• If these variations and/or
mutations are favorable,
natural selection promotes
their transmission to future
generations.
• For instance, flight in
pterosaurs and bats, based on
a membrane stretched
between or from fingers, may
have originated as an
adaptation to glide away from
predators which themselves
later became adapted to
powered flight.
 Fossil Record

• The fossil record shows

that, throughout Earth’s
history, species have
evolved and died out.

• The majority of species

that have evolved are
now extinct, but their
genes survive in living
descendants.
 Speciation and Geographic Isolation
• Speciation is the process by which new species evolve from an ancestral
species, and it can be brought about in a number of ways.
• For example, environmental change can fragment populations leading to
geographical and genetic isolation of different groups.
 We Are All Descendants of Africa
• Over time, genetic variations
and adaptations to new
circumstances alter the gene
pool of these groups to such
an extent that even if they
did come together again,
members of different groups
would not be able to breed
and produce fertile young
because they would have
evolved into separate
species.
• Note: Right photo shows
five variations leading to
humans with origins
pointing to Africa.
 Environmental: Catastrophes
• Additionally, various
regional and global
environmental
catastrophes have
impacted upon life and
resulted in mass
extinctions.
• The second to the largest
of these, at the end of
Cretaceous times, caused
all dinosaurs to eventually
die out and many other
marine organisms suffered
as well. Yet life recovered.
 Coevolution
• Where two or more species interact over a long period, the possibility of
mutually beneficial adaptation or coevolution arises.

For example, flowering plants

develop a flower with colored
petals to attract insects, which
then cross-pollinate and fertilize
the plants, so that the plants
produce seeds.

The form of different flower

species has coevolved to
accommodate specific insects and,
less frequently, birds.
 Utilizing Resources
• The evolution of various, attractive, nutritious berries and fruits have led
different birds and mammals to develop feeding habits that utilize such
resources. The benefit to the plant is that its seeds pass through the gut of
the consumer unharmed and are distributed in droppings of natural fertilizer.
 Uniformitarianism
• Uniformitarianism is the
assumption that the same
natural laws and
processes that operate in
the universe now have
always operated in the
universe in the past and
apply everywhere in the
universe.
• This principle or law holds
that all natural
developments on Earth
come extremely slow, in
increments, and in a more
or less uniform fashion. Phrase: The present is the key to the past.
 Punctuated Equilibrium
• The Punctuated Equilibrium
theory proposes that our
planet’s chronology can be
likened to a sequence of
steady states regularly
interrupted by periods of
rapid, often radical change,
caused by such catastrophic
events as massive volcanic
activity, an asteroid impact,
and a change in planetary
temperature occasioned by
various means.
 Mass Extinction Events
• Whole groups of organisms have evolved and become extinct, some in
mass extinction events.
 Reversals in Evolution
• Animals as diverse as
whales, snakes, and
ostriches are all
essentially tetrapods –
four limbed creatures –
descended from a land-
living ancestor that used
its limbs for walking.
• Over time, they have all
adapted to very different
lifestyles and habitats,
with radical modifications
of their appendages and
bodies. The prehistoric whale , Rodhocetus (Rod-ho-seat-
us), spent most of its time in the water.
 Snakes are Tetrapods?
• By losing all four limbs, snakes have adapted to a different mode of
movement: throwing the body into S-shaped curves and using the
friction of scales to move forward.
 Me, a Reversal in Evolution?
• Finally, the flightless
ostrich is descended
from a flying bird, which
had forelimbs modified
into wings.
• Such loss of original
limbs is termed a
reversal in evolution
(although evolution is a
process of constant
adaptation rather than
of steady progress).
 Microevolution
• Genetic changes that
lead to the creation Species
of a new species are
known as
microevolution.
• Microevolution
involves the small-
scale changes, i.e.
within the species
level, occurring over
a short period of
time, resulting in the
formation of a new
subspecies. Subspecies
 Macroevolution
• Changes in higher
level taxonomic
groups (such as
families) and their
patterns of
evolution are
termed
macroevolution.
• Macroevolution is
essentially just
microevolution over
an extended period Example: the arms and hands of various animals.
of time.
 Embryonic Development
• The embryonic development of
all vertebrates shows remarkable
similarities as you can see from
the figure to the right. There are
six embryos which include one
chicken, one fish, one human,
one rabbit, one salamander, and
one turtle.
• Can you identify each one?
• Dark blue = fish
• Aqua blue = salamander
• Green-blue = turtle
• Yellow = chicken
• Purple = rabbit
• Pink = human
 Development of Human Baby
• By just 8
weeks, there
is a tiny,
miraculously
developing
baby inside
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7kaw4
its mother’s 0pPYw
womb.
Evolution through Geological Time
• Over 99.99 percent of all species
that ever lived are extinct
because life has evolved for over
3.5 billion years, and species
rarely survive beyond a few tens
of millions of years.
• For 3 billion years, “life” meant
microscopic marine organisms; it
only moved into freshwater and
onto land 470 million years ago,
and not until 300 million years
ago during the Silurian time were
plants able to colonize dry,
uplands.
 Rapid Bursts of Evolution
• Fossils reveal a pattern of rapid bursts of evolution, dispersal, and
extinction, sometimes with waves of evolving populations replacing one
another as well as gradual background evolutionary change.
 Is There a Missing Link?
• And there are times when we have new species show up on the Earth, and
we have no clue as to what ancestor they evolved from.

Is there a missing link? Have we not

found that species yet? Does one
even exist?

How did the Cambrian Explosion

occur so quickly after the Snowball
Earth?

Better yet, how did man evolve so

quickly from primitive ape-like
creatures known as Astralopithecus
to the Homo sapiens?
 Earth’s Geologic Past
• The theory of evolution remains
one of the most useful theories in
paleontology because it explains
many questions and observations
related to data concerning Earth
and its geologic past.
• However, like Charles Darwin,
many scientists today believe that
the theory is not completely
flawless. In fact, Darwin
acknowledged that if his theory is
true, it would require millions of
transitional forms. He believed
they would be found in fossil
records. They haven’t been.