EVOLEC REVIEWER

SPECIATION AND EXTINCTION

Patterns of Macroevolution
1. Mass Extinctions
2. Adaptive Radiation
3. Convergent Evolution
4. Coevolution
5. Punctuated Equilibrium
MASS EXTINCTION
Extinction – simultaneous worldwide disappearance of many different species
Background extinction – 0.1 million species/year (based on fossil record)
 Current rate – 100 million species/year
Mass Extinction
 Major Events
o Proterozoic – 70% of marine algae
o Cambrian – 50% marine invertebrates
o Devonian - trilobites, corals, ancestral fish
o Permian/Triassic – 80-90% of animal species
o Cretaceous/Tertiary - 50% of animal species

Proterozoic (1st Mass extinction)

- 70% of marine algae (red algae, chlorophyte, brown algae)
- formation of Hydrosphere
Paleozoic (2nd and 3rd Mass extinction)
Cambrian
- 50% marine invertebrates (Kalarindiji Province; volcano eruption that killed the 50%)
- Cause: huge volcanic eruptions, lava covering the land, depletion of oxygen in the
ocean, rise of temperature
Devonian
- Kellwasser event
- 376 – 360 mya
- Affected groups: trilobites, brachiopods, reef-building organisms
- Causes: change in sea levels triggered by global cooling/oceanic volcanism
(photosynthetic organisms such as planktons’ death); decrease pf oxygen in ocean
resulting in oceanoxia
Permian/Triassic (4th Mass extinction)
- 252 mya
 - The Great Dying
- Affected groups: 95% marine species; 70% terrestrial species (Mass Extinction of
Insects)
- Causes:
1. Large volcanic event that produced the Siberian Traps
- Eruption blocked out the sun that prevented photosynthesis,
causing many food webs to collapse
- One of the largest volcanic events in Earth’s history
- Large-scale global warming effect (+10°C land; +8°C ocean surface)
2. Formation of Pangaea during the middle of the Permian period
- Caused substantial decrease in the area of shallow marine environments
 Most productive parts of the oceans
 Resulted in decreased O2 supply
 Home to many producers; caused collapse of marine food webs
- May have affected ocean circulation = altered nutrient circulation in marine
ecosystems
- Affected global weather patterns
Cretaceous/Tertiary (5th Mass extinction)
- K-T Extinction (Kreide – German for chalk; T – Tertiary)
- 50% of animal species
- Cause: collapse of food web
- Asteroid Alvarez impact theory (Walter and Luiz Alvarez) – huge quantity of rock
and dust particles covered and enshrouded the Earth in darkness for several months
without the sun (global dust cloud)
- No photosynthesis; disruption of food chain (proof: crater in Yucatan Peninsula near
Mexico 111 miles in diameter
Cenozoic Mass Extinction (6th Mass extinction)
- Holocene extinction
- Anthropocene extinction
- 2019: 1,000,000 species of plants and animals face extinction caused by
anthropogenic impacts (man-made)
- Causes:
- Disease
o Hyperdisease hypothesis by Ross Mac Phee (1977)
- Migrating humans introduced one or more highly virulent diseases into
new environments whose native population had no immunity to them
(zoonotic virus)
- K-selection animals (equilibrium species – huge animals (elephants,
eagles); Low gestation (period of development of fetus (fetal
development period from the time of conception until birth
(mammals) – low population rate)
o Vulnerable to zoonotic/livestock diseases
o Long gestation period (?)selected animals – parasitic – high gestation – fast
reproduction, small in size fast recovery of population (rodents)
o Examples: Megafauna, bald eagles, elephants
 - Habitat Loss
o Amazon forest had massive fire (not natural but is introduced); several
hectares are burned for cattle field
o Agriculture – kaingin, residential
o Commercial – buildings, etc. (Local species are exposed to elements)
o Boracay – 15 years of island destruction
o Baguio – landslide due to chopping of pine trees
o Philippine Forests cover for World Bank (1934 – 2010)
- Pollution
o DDT (dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane) in insecticides and pesticides caused
raptorial birds around the area to produce thin-shelled eggs or shelless eggs
- Caused abnormalities in birds’ offspring; see-through bodies of frog
when subjected to UV radiation
- Fukushima butterfly (exposure to radiation had damaged eyes, smaller
wings, exclusion failure in which it can’t fight its way out of the
cocoon)
- Frogs in Minnesota (5-legged) due to river pollution
- Overconsumption, Overhunting, Over poaching
o Denmark whale killing festival
- Done as right of passage (boyhood – manhood)
o China sharks fin soup
o Tawilis taal lake overconsumption
o 1920s cheetahs in wild are poached as trophies; gorillas as ashtray (hand);
bears, lions, elephants and rhino (tusk); aphrodisiac – Chinese
ADAPTIVE RADIATION
- Process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a
multitude of new forms (particularly when a change in environment makes new
resources available)
o Availability of new resources
o Change in environment creates new challenges (primary predator dead – role
to other predators; ex: Yellowstone National Park – foxes overgrazing, species
of plant erosion, aquatic environment)
o Change in environment opens new environmental niches
- Ex: Diversification of finches – varying preferences for diet (Galapagos finches)
o Behavioral and reproductive isolation (cause of speciation)

CONVERGENT EVOLUTION
- Process whereby unrelated organisms independently evolve similar traits as a result of
having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches
o Analogous structure – unrelated but have similar structures due to same
environmental pressure (ex; shark; dolphin)
o Homologous structure – similarity due to common ancestor or same
developmental origin
- Different purpose; similar traits (ex: arm of human; wing of bird/bat;
flipper of whale/dolphin)
o Galapagos finches – speciation due to volcanic eruption that divided
population
COEVOLUTION
 - Process by which two or more species evolve in tandem by exerting selection
pressures on each other (Ex: host and parasite, predators and prey, symbionts)
- Process of reciprocal evolutionary change that occurs between species as they interact
with each other (Ex: predator-prey; flowering plants-pollinators; parasite-host;
symbiotic-milkweed (monarch butterfly – they neutralize the poison of milkweed);
orchid and moth-long proboscis/siphon)
PUNCTUTED EQUILIBRIUM
- States that organisms are in stasis until a major change causes evolutionary pressures,
which result in rapid burst of speciation until stasis is again reached
- A pattern of evolution in which long stable periods are interrupted by brief periods of
more rapid change
- Theory that states that evolution occurs primarily through short bursts of intense
speciation, followed by period of stasis of equilibrium
o The model postulates nearly 99% of species time on earth is spent in stasis
and change happens very quickly (not gradual)
SPECIATION
- Process where new species are formed
- Results from reproductive isolation of demes
- Types of reproductive isolation
o Premating isolation
- Demes separated by geophysical barriers
o Post mating isolation
o Successful fertilization

PREZYGOTIC BARRIERS/PREMATING ISOLATION

- Prevent from interbreeding
o Behavioral
o Temporal
o Geophysical
POSTZYGOTIC BARRIER/POST MATING ISOLATION
- Do not survive past embryonic stages