Day 13 October

th 10

Chapter 8

How did the second exam go?

Chapter 8: Evolution and Natural Selection

Darwins dangerous idea: evolution by natural selection

Lectures by Mark Manteuffel, St. Louis Community College ; Clicker Questions by Kristen Curran, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Evolution in Action
8.1 We can see evolution occur right before us. Therefore, evolution is a scientific process.

Could you breed fruit flies who could live longer than 20 hours on average?

Populations are studied

When these eggs hatch, do you think the flies in this new generation will live longer than 20 hours without food?

What happened?

Evolution a genetic change in the population Natural selection the consequence of certain individual organisms in a population being born with characteristics that enable them to survive better and reproduce more than the offspring of other individuals in the population

Does evolution occur?

The
We

answer is an unambiguous: YES.

can watch it happen in the lab whenever we want.

Recall from our discussion of the scientific method that for an experiments results to be valid, they must be reproducible.

Experiments in Evolution

Dogs? Rabbits?

In Nature -

Why are camels a successful species?

Evolution
How

does evolution occur?

What

types of changes can evolution cause in a population? primary lines of evidence by natural selection

Five

Evolution

Darwins Journey to an Idea

8.2 Before Darwin, most people believed that all species had been created separately and were unchanging.

Button started the debate by suggesting the Earth had to be at least 75,000 years old!

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Biologist, Living

early 1800s

species might change over time.

(Was wrong about the mechanism - he thought that change came about through the use or disuse of features)

Charles Lyell
Geologist 1830

book Principles of Geology

Geological forces had shaped the earth and were continuing to do so. Gradual

but constant change

This idea that the physical features of the earth were constantly changing would most closely parallel Darwins idea that the living species of the earth, too, were gradually but constantlychanging.

We know the Earth is constantly changing

Fossils of shells have been found high in the Andes Mountains Forest fires wipe out entire species of plants and animals. Rivers flow, and carve out rock, creating two distinct shores, where different species live. Lakes dry up, killing all marine life inside. Pollution and Toxic spills kill organisms. Volcanoes.

In the 1790s, Georges Cuvier began to explore the bottoms of coal and slate mines and found fossils

Why were fossils such a problem for people at that time?

This was highly troubling for people at the time.

http://www.bspcn.com/2009/04/03/11-extinct-animals-that-have-been-photographed-alive/

Extinction
five mass extinctions on earth, and four in the last 3.5 billion years - many species have disappeared in a relatively short period of geological time. The "Great Dying" about 250 million years ago, which is estimated to have killed 90% of species existing at the time. Most extinctions have occurred naturally, without human intervention: it is estimated that 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct.

8.3 A job on a round-the-world survey ship allowed Darwin to indulge and advance his love of nature.

Age 16, University of Edinburgh, medical studies Studied theology at Cambridge University His real love: study of nature

Found that he HATED sea travel Spent as much time on shore as possible

Collected fossils and specimen to bring back to England Felt like he was on permanent vacation

8.4 Observing geographic similarities and differences among fossils and living plants and animals, Darwin developed a theory of evolution.

Lyells Principles of Geology The Galapagos Islands

How could he explain finding marine fossils high in the Andes Mountains, hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean? The idea that the earth was an ever-changing planet was seeping into Darwins mind.

The Galapagos Islands

July 1998 (I was a junior in college)