Chapter 25 PHYLOGENY AND SYSTEMATICS

Phylogeny is the evolutionary history of a species or group of species.

It includes the description and explanation of the sequence in time of the
morphological, ecological and biogeographical changes of the taxon.
And the theoretical explanations of the origin of the taxon.
THE FOSSIL RECORD AND GEOLOGIC TIME
Fossils are the preserved remnant of organisms. Fossils include impressions and casts.
Fossils are found embedded in layers, or strata, of sedimentary roc.
Sedimentary! hardened eroded material due to pressure or chemical means" about #$ of the
crust, e. g. limestone, sandstone, and shale.
%edimentary rocs form from layers of minerals that settle out of &ater, or dust, sand, silt and
other eroded material that are carried to ponds and laes and the particles settle to the bottom.
'ead organisms also settle at the bottom and are covered &ith these particles.
(ard parts lie shells and bones preserve &ell" sometimes dissolved minerals penetrate the
tissues and replace the organic material petrifying the organism.
)racs and impressions are preserved &hen the soft sediment hardens.
%ometimes the entire organism including the soft parts are preserved &hen the body falls in a
place &here bacteria and fungi cannot decompose the body, e. g. insects trapped in resin,
mammoths fro*en in the %iberian permafrost.
+aleontology is the study of fossils.
+aleontologists use several methods to date fossils.
)rapping the organism in sediments free*es the fossil in time. )he fossils in a stratum are a
sample of the organisms that lived and died at the time of the sedimentation.
)he geologi time !ale is the chronology of the ,arth-s history.
)he earth-s history is divided into eon!, era!, "eriod! and e"oh!.
)hese divisions correspond to transitions in the composition of the fossil record.
Climatic changes are also deduced from the composition of the roc layers.
)here are t&o eons!
+recambrian, .5// m.y.a. to 50/ m.y.a.
+hanero*oic, 50/ m.y.a. to the present.
)here are four eras! +recambrian 1beginning 2 5.3 mya4, +aleo*oic 15.322.5 mya4, 5eso*oic
12.5265 mya4 and Ceno*oic 165 mya2present4.
)he absolute ages of fossils in years can be determined by radiometric dating. 7adiometric
dating measures the fixed rate of decay of the radioactive isotope.
(alf2life is the time it taes for 5/$ of the original sample to decay.
Carbon28. has a half2life of 503/ years" uranium223# has a half2life of ..5 million
years.
)he fossil record is an incomplete chronicle of the evolutionary history of organisms. It favors
organisms &ith parts easily fossili*ed.
THE THEORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT
Continental dri#t is the process by &hich tectonic plates on the ,arth-s surface move closer or
apart relative to each other.
Continental drift has had a great impact in the distribution of species over the earth
1biogeography4 and evolution.
)he movement of continental plates is called "late tetoni!.
Continental drift is an on2going process that has changed the configuration of the continents
since the formation of the landmasses.
)his hypothesis first proposed in 8982 by Alfred :egener, a ;erman 5eteorologist, &as not
&idely accepted until after 896/.
:egener-s evidence for continental drift includes!
184 Continental fit.
124 ;lacial deposits indicating high latitudes on portions of the continents that are no& in &arm
latitudes,
134 Alignment of geologic features such as mountain belts &hen continents are reassembled,
and
1.4 <ccurrence of identical fossils, of the same age, on landmasses that are no longer
connected.
:egener proposed that landmasses &ere =oined at one time into a huge supercontinent called
Pangaea.
Pangaea broe up about 8#/ million years ago &ith the plates carrying the different continents
&ith the species they had.
Continental drift sub=ected landmasses to >
?e& climatic conditions.
?e& geographical connections.
)his caused the separation of groups that &ere related and brought into competition groups that
&ere previously separated and had evolved their unique adaptations.
)he results &ere increase complexity and extinction.
)here have been several mass extinctions.
,volutionary history has been characteri*ed by long, relatively stable periods interrupted by
intervals of extensive species turnover.
5ass extinctions have been follo&ed by periods of extensive adaptive radiation.
SYSTEMATICS
Ta$onomy is the branch of biology that identifies, name and describes organisms.
Sy!temati! is the study of the diversity and evolutionary relationship of organisms.
Nomenlat%re is the system of use to name different taxa.
Cla!!i#iation refers to the establishing, defining and raning of taxa in a hierarchical series of
groups.
@I?<5IAA %B%),5
Carol%! Linnae%! established the &inomial !y!tem of nomenclature in the mid28#th. Century.
,ach species has a t&o2part name! the gen%! name and the !"eie! e"ithet.
)he species is the basic unit of classification.
+opulations of the same species sho& distinct characteristics that distinguish them form other
populations.
)hese geographical variants may be classified as !%&!"eie!.
+lant subspecies may be referred as varieties, and bacteria subspecies may be referred as
strains.
)he hierarchical system is divided into 'ingdom, "hyl%m, la!!, order, #amily, gen%! and
!"eie!.
+lural of species is species and of genus is genera.
A ta$on is formal grouping of organisms at any level including all the subordinate groups.
)he hierarchical system is based on groups of groups, e.g. several species forma genus"
several genera form a family" several families form an order, etc.
<riginally there &ere t&o ingdoms! Animalia and +lantae.
<ver the years other ingdoms &ere recogni*ed! 5onera 1or +roaryotae4, Fungi, +rotista 1or
+rotoctista4.
5ost biologists recogni*e six ingdoms! E%&ateria, Arhae&ateria, Proti!ta, F%ngi, Plantae
and Animalia.
Domain is a ne& taxon above the ingdom based on fundamental molecular differences, e.g.
gene sequencing.
)here are three domains recogni*ed by many biologists! Arhaea, E%&ateria and E%'arya.
+hylogenetic trees reflect the hierarchical classification of the taxonomic groups.
Cladi!ti! is one method of analy*ing the species evolutionary relationships.
Cladi!ti! begins &ith the premise that al taxa are monophyletic.
,ach taxon or clade consists of a common ancestor and all its descendants.
It is based only on shared derived characters.
7esults are presented in a diagram called ladogram.
It is a tree constructed from a series of dichotomies.
)he branch point represents the divergence of t&o species.
)he branching is inferred by analy*ing homologies and identifying shared characters.
Mono"hyleti gro%"! include all the descendants of the most recent common ancestor.
<rganisms in a "oly"hyleti gro%" evolved from different ancestors.
Para"hyleti gro%" include some but not all the organisms descended from a common
ancestor.
%ystematists consider structural, physiological, behavioral and molecular traits in the evaluation
of similarities bet&een t&o species.
Mole%lar data
%pecies2to2species comparisons of the amino acid sequences in proteins and the base
sequences in nucleic acids reveal phylogenetic relationships.
The "rini"le o# "ar!imony(
Among phylogenetic hypotheses, the most parsimonious tree is the one that requires
the fe&est evolutionary changes.
)he best hypothesis is the one that incorporates the greatest amount of data, e. g. anatomical,
molecular, etc.
+hylogenetic trees are hypothetical.
)he base sequence of some regions of '?A change at a rate consistent enough to serve as
clocs to date episodes in past evolution.
Mole%lar lo'!)
5olecular cloc is a ne& method of timing the development of traits and species, provided by
molecular biology.
5olecular clocs may eep tac of evolutionary time.
(omologous '?A sequences or their protein products are compared for taxa that are
no&n to have diverged from common ancestors during certain periods in the past.
)he number of nucleotides and amino acid substitutions is proportional to the time that
has elapsed since the lineages branched.
See example of tuna and sharks when compared to bats and dolphins, page 503.
)he base sequence of some regions of '?A change at a rate consistent enough to serve as
clocs to date episodes in past evolution.
?o gene mars time accurately.
%ome sections of the genome evolve in fits and starts that are not at all cloc&ise.
;enes that mae good molecular clocs are accurate only in a statistical sense of a fairly
smooth average rate of change.
5any biologists are septical about the use of molecular to record evolutionary events in time.