THE PROCESS OF

EVOLUTION
CORE CONCEPTS
• Species - Ernst Mayer’s definition: “Species are
groups of interbreeding natural populations
that are reproductively isolated from other
such groups.”
• - Is a closely related organism that are very
similar and capable of producing fertile
offspring.
REPRODUCTIVE ISOLATING
MECHANISM
• The mechanisms of reproductive isolation are a
collection of evolutionary mechanisms, behaviors
and physiological processes critical for speciation.
They prevent members of different species from
producing offspring, or ensure that any offspring
are sterile. These barriers maintain the integrity of a
species by reducing gene flow between related
species.
PRE-ZYGOTIC ISOLATION MECHANISMS

• prevent fertilization and zygote formation.

• - happens before fertilization occurs between
gametes.
TYPES OF PRE-
ZYGOTIC
MECHANISMS
GEOGRAPHIC OR ECOLOGICAL OR HABITAT
ISOLATION

• occurs when two species that could interbreed do

not because the species live in different areas. The
two species live in different habitats and will not
encounter one another: each is isolated from the
other species.
TEMPORAL OR SEASONAL ISOLATION

• Different groups may not be

reproductively mature. For example, two
populations of plants may produce
flowers in different seasons, making
mating between the populations
impossible.
BEHAVIORAL ISOLATION

• patterns of courtship is different. For example,

eastern & western meadowlark songs differ.
MECHANICAL ISOLATION
• differences in reproductive organs prevent
successful interbreeding. Mechanical isolation
occurs when mating is physically impossible.
GAMETIC ISOLATION
• Incompatibilities between egg and sperm prevent
fertilization. Often this occurs because the female immune
system recognizes sperm as foreign and attacks
POST-ZYGOTIC ISOLATION MECHANISMS

• Allow fertilization but nonviable or weak or

sterile hybrids are formed. In these cases, the
zygote formed is called a hybrid. However,
even after a hybrid zygote forms, reproduction
may still not be successful
TYPES OF POST-ZYGOTIC ISOLATION

• Hybrid inviability- fertilized egg fails to develop past the early

embryonic stages. For example, when tigers and leopards are
crossed, the zygote begins to develop but the pregnancy ends in
miscarriage or stillborn.
• Hybrid sterility- hybrids are sterile because gonads develop
abnormally or there is abnormal segregation of chromosomes
during meiosis. A horse and a donkey may produce a hybrid
offspring, a mule. Mules are sterile.
• Hybrid breakdown-First Generation hybrids are normal, vigorous
and viable, but Second generation may contains many weak or
sterile individuals
SPECIATION

• The evolutionary process by which populations

evolve to become distinct species. It is the
process by which new species develop from
existing species
MODE OF SPECIATION
• Allopatric Speciation- also known as geographic speciation occurs when some members
of a population become geographically separated from the other members thereby
preventing gene flow. Examples of geographic barriers are bodies of water and mountain
ranges.
• Sympatric Speciation- occurs when members of a population that initially occupy the
same habitat within the same range diverge into two or more different species. It involves
abrupt genetic changes that quickly lead to the reproductive isolation of a group of
individuals. Example is change in chromosome number (polyploidization)
• Parapatric Speciation- occurs when the groups that evolved to be separate species are
geographic neighbors. Gene flow occurs but with great distances is reduced. There is also
abrupt change in the environment over a geographic border and strong disruptive selection
must also happen
EVOLUTIONARY
THOUGHT
CARL VON LINNAE (CAROLUS LINNAEUS)

• Swedish naturalist and explorer

that was the first to frame
principles for defining natural
genera and species of organisms
and to create a uniform system
for naming them, known as
binomial nomenclature
•LINNAEAN SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION

• He is known as the “father of

taxonomy.” Linnaeus tried to
describe and classify the entire
known natural world. In 1735,
he published his classification
system in a work called
Systema Naturae (“System of
Nature”).
THOMAS MALTHUS
• observed that an increase in a nation's food production
improved the well-being of the populace, but the
improvement was temporary because it led to
population growth, which in turn restored the original
per capita production level. In other words, humans had
a propensity to utilize abundance for population growth
rather than for maintaining a high standard of living, a
view that has become known as the "Malthusian trap" or
the "Malthusian spectre". Populations had a tendency to
grow until the lower class suffered hardship, want and
greater susceptibility to famine and disease, a view that
is sometimes referred to as a Malthusian catastrophe.
GEORGE CUVIER

• Father of Paleontology
• Theory of Catastrophism = boundaries
represent floods, droughts, etc. that
destroyed many species living at that
time
• According to him, fossils are remains of
extinct life forms
JAMES HUTTON

• Theory of Gradualism = Profound

changes can result from cumulative effect
of slow but continuous processes.
• • Proposed that the Earth was shaped by
geological forces occurring over very long
• periods of time, and is MILLIONS not
THOUSANDS of years old.
CHARLES LYELL

• Principles of Geology = argued that the

formation of Earth's crust took place through
countless small changes occurring over vast
periods of time, all according to known natural
laws. His "uniformitarian" proposal was that the
forces molding the planet today have operated
continuously throughout its history
JEAN BAPTISTE DE LAMARCK
CHARLES DARWIN- FATHER OF EVOLUTION

Natural Selection-
if an organism can
adapt on change,
it will survive.
• Theory of Natural Selection
• Theory of Modification
• Theory of Descent with Modification
EVOLUTION OF DARWIN’S THEORY
• His voyage and his observations led him to write ‘The Origin of Species
• In 1831, 22-year old Charles Darwin left England as naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle for 5
year voyage around the world. His mission is to chart the South American coastline
• He noticed plants and animals were different from those he knew in Europe
• He wrote thousands of pages of observations and collected vast number of specimens.
• He spent a month observing life on the Galapagos Islands and realized that each island has
different rainfall and vegetation and its own unique assortment of plant and animal species.
• He collected 14 species of finches and hypothesized that the Galapagos had be colonized by
organisms from the mainland that had then diversified on the various.
• In 1859 , his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was published. It
presented evidence and proposed a mechanism for evolution that he called NATURAL
SELECTION.
• It took Darwin years to form his theory of evolution by natural selection. His reasoning went like
this:
1.Like Lamarck, Darwin assumed that species can change over time. The fossils he found helped
convince him of that.
2. From Lyell, Darwin saw that Earth and its life were very old. Thus, there had been enough time for
evolution to produce the great diversity of life Darwin had observed.
3. From Malthus, Darwin knew that populations could grow faster than their resources. This
“overproduction of offspring” led to a “struggle for existence,” in Darwin’s words.
4. From artificial selection, Darwin knew that some offspring have variations that occur by chance, and
that can be inherited. In nature, offspring with certain variations might be more likely to survive the
“struggle for existence” and reproduce. If so, they would pass their favorable variations to their
offspring.
5. Darwin coined the term fitness to refer to an organism’s relative ability to survive and produce
fertile offspring. Nature selects the variations that are most useful. Therefore, he called this type of
selection natural selection.
6. Darwin knew artificial selection could change domestic species over time. He inferred that natural
selection could also change species over time. In fact, he thought that if a species changed enough, it
might evolve into a new species.
EVIDENCES OF EVOLUTION
FOSSILS

• Fossils provide solid evidence that organisms from the

past are not the same as those found today, and fossils
show a progression of evolution. Scientists determine the
age of fossils and categorize them from all over the world
to determine when the organisms lived relative to each
other. The resulting fossil record tells the story of the past
and shows the evolution
ANATOMY AND EMBRYOLOGY

• Another type of evidence for evolution is the presence of

structures in organisms that share the same basic form.
For example, the bones in the appendages of a human,
dog, bird, and whale all share the same overall
construction resulting from their origin in the appendages
of a common ancestor.
EMBRYOLOGY

• The appearance of embryo in early stages are the

same and later differ based on the organism
development
HOMOLOGOUS STRUCTURE
• organs or skeletal elements of animals and
organisms that, by virtue of their similarity, suggest
their connection to a common ancestor. They do
not have to look the same or have the same
function
ANALOGOUS STRUCTURE

• are structures that are similar in unrelated

organisms. The structures are similar because they
evolved to do the same job, not because they are
inherited from a common ancestor.
VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES

• structures exist in organisms

that have no apparent function
at all and appear to be residual
parts from a past common
ancestor
BIOGEOGRAPHY

• The geographic distribution of organisms on the planet

follows patterns that are best explained by evolution in
conjunction with the movement of tectonic plates over
geological time. Broad groups that evolved before the
breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea (about 200 million
years ago) are distributed worldwide.
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

• Evidence of a common ancestor for all of life is

reflected in the universality of DNA as the genetic
material and in the near universality of the genetic
code and the machinery of DNA replication and
expression
MECHANISMS OF EVOLUTIONARY
CHANGES
•
Mechanisms of evolutionary
changes include genetic drift,
migration or gene flow, mutation,
natural selection and non-random
mating
GENETIC DRIFT

• change in the gene pool of a population due to chance.

• Bottleneck effect takes place when population decreases

due to various environmental factors such as fires,
earthquakes and floods.
• The Founder effect happens when a small population of
organisms separates from the larger group to invade a
new area
GENE FLOW

• Described as the movement of genes from

one population to another. When this
happens, there is a tendency to increase
the gene diversity in the populations.
MUTATION

• occurs when there is a change in the

genetic makeup caused by
environmental stressors.
NATURAL SELECTION

• explains the difference in survival of individual

and reproduce in a particular environment
NON-RANDOM MATING

• increases the frequency of animal with

desirable traits. It causes evolution
because it intrudes the natural pool of
gene variations.