Republic of the Philippines

Schools Division of Bulacan

San Miguel National High School
Scuala St., San Juan, San Miguel, Bulacan

LEARNING
ACTIVITY SHEET
IN
General Biology 2
No. 7
Devolopment of Evolutionary Thought

Name :____________________ Date: ___________________

Grade Level: _______________ Section: _________________
Quarter:___________________

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I . OBJECTIVES
A. Content Standards:
The learner demonstrates understanding of Relevance, Mechanisms,
Evidence/Bases, and Theories of Evolution

B. Performance Standards:
The learner is able to make a diagram (e.g., pictogram, poster) showing the
evolution of domesticated crop.

C. MELCs:
 Trace the development of evolutionary thought.
( STEM_BIO11/12-IIIc-g-11)

D. Specific Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. enumerate the scientists and cite their respective contributions in the

development of evolutionary thought;
2. describe Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s hypothesis on evolutionary change; and
3. discuss Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

II. CONTENT: Development of Evolutionary Thought

III. PROCEDURES:
Pre-Test: Directions: Read the statements/questions comprehensively and
choose the letter of the best answer.

1. Catastrophism, meaning the regular occurrence of geological or meteorological

disturbances (catastrophes), was Cuvier's attempt to explain the existence of __.
A. Evolution
B. The fossil record
C. Uniformitarianism
D. The origin of new species
2. Which of the following represents an idea that Darwin learned from the writings of
Thomas Malthus?
A. Technological innovation in agricultural practices will permit exponential
growth of the human population into the foreseeable future.
B. Populations tend to increase at a faster rate than their food supply normally
allows.
C. Earth changed over the years through a series of catastrophic upheavals.
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 D. The environment is responsible for natural selection.

3. Which of the following ideas is not included in Darwin’s theory?

A. All organisms that have ever existed arose through evolutionary modifications
of ancestral species.
B. The great variety of species live today resulted from the diversification of
ancestral species.
C. Natural selection drives some evolutionary change.
D. Natural selection eliminates adaptive traits.
4. Which of the following statements is not compatible with Darwin’s theory?
A. All organisms have arisen by descent with modification.
B. Evolution has altered and diversified ancestral species.
C. Evolution occurs in individuals rather than in groups
D. Natural selection eliminates unsuccessful variations.
5. Which of the following must exist in a population before natural selection can act
upon that population?
A. Genetic variation among individuals
B. Variation among individuals caused by environmental factors
C. Sexual reproduction
D. Three of the responses are correct

L E S S O N:
Douglas Futuyma defines evolution as “a change in the properties of groups of
organisms over the course of generations…it embraces everything from slight changes
in the proportions of different forms of a gene within a population to the alterations
that led from the earliest organism to dinosaurs, bees, oaks, and humans.” “Evolution
may be defined as any net directional change or any cumulative change in the
characteristics of organisms or populations over many generations—in other words,
descent with modification… It explicitly includes the origin as well as the spread of
alleles, variants, trait values, or character states” by John Endler and in a very different
vein, Leigh van Valen characterized evolution as “the control of development by
ecology;” this anticipates those who emphasize the importance of development in
evolution, including proponents of “evo-devo”.
Let us take a look at different evolutionary thoughts that lead to the definitions
of evolutions.

EVOLUTIONARY THOUGHTS CONTRIBUTORS

Carl Linnaeus was the famous 18th century Swedish botanist and naturalist
who created the basic biological taxonomy — the so-called binomial classification
system — that is the foundation of our modern taxonomic system. Linnaeus'
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classification, at its most basic, uses the dual "genus, species," nomenclature to
classify organisms — everything from slime molds and bacteria to elephants and
humans. When Linnaeus finished his doctorate, he published a brief pamphlet that
would eventually revolutionize the fields of biology and scientific taxonomy. This "list"
was written in Latin and was called Systema Naturae ("The System of Nature"). It
proposed a radical new approach to the ordering and classification of plants and
animals. His system was hierarchically ranked, meaning that organisms were grouped
into successively larger groups based on morphological traits (that is, physical
attributes). At the broadest level, the classification system was divided into three broad
kingdoms: animals, plants and minerals (the mineral designation was subsequently
dropped). These categories were further subdivided into increasingly specific
designations, which included "classes," "orders," "genera," and "species." Linnaeus
combined two terms, genus and species, and used this combination to identify each
particular organism. The species designation, a term he borrowed from the English
naturalist and parson John Ray, indicates the most basic unit of classification,
traditionally defined as organisms capable of interbreeding. The genus designation
(gens is Latin for "tribe") ranks above species and designates the larger group of related
organisms. For example, a coyote (Canis latrans) is a different species from a wolf
(Canis lupus), but both belong to the same genus, Canis. This genus, in turn, could
then be related to the higher-order ranks, such as order (Carnivora), class (Mammalia)
and so on, all the way up to the highest rank, the kingdom ranking (Animalia).

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 Thomas Robert Malthus was born near Guildford, Surrey in February 1766.
Malthus' most well-known work, 'An Essay on the Principle of Population' was
published in 1798, although he was the author of many pamphlets and other longer
tracts including 'An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent' (1815) and 'Principles
of Political Economy' (1820). Malthus first pointed out that human nature being what
it is, the passion between the sexes appears to be fairly constant and, if unchecked
population will double itself every twenty-five years. "Population, when unchecked,
increases at a geometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio. A
slight acquaintance with numbers will show the immensity of the first power in
comparison with the second." And this leads to Malthus’s principle of population.
Because of this unequal power between production and reproduction, "population
must always be kept down to the level of the means of subsistence.” While Malthus
was not the first one to notice this, he was the first to inquire into the means by which
this leveling of population is achieved.

Georges Cuvier possessed one of the finest minds in history. Almost single-
handedly, he founded vertebrate paleontology as a scientific discipline and created the
comparative method of organismal biology, an incredibly powerful tool. It was Cuvier
who firmly established the fact of the extinction of past life forms. He contributed an
immense amount of research in vertebrate and invertebrate zoology and paleontology,
and also wrote and lectured on the history of science. Catastrophism was a theory
developed by Cuvier based on paleontological evidence in the Paris Basin. He observed
something peculiar about the fossil record, instead of finding a continuous succession
of fossils, he noticed several gaps where all evidence of life would disappear and then
abruptly reappear again after a notable amount of time. Cuvier recognized these gaps
in the fossil succession as mass extinction events. This led to the formation of Theory
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of Catastrophism. It states that natural history has been punctuated by catastrophic
events that altered that way life developed and rocks were deposited.
James Hutton (1726–1797), a Scottish farmer and naturalist, is known as the
founder of modern geology. He developed the theory of gradualism according to which
profound changes to the Earth, such as the Grand Canyon, are due to slow continues
process and not part of catastrophes as proposed by the Theory of Catastrophism.
Hutton described a universe, that one formed by a continuous cycle in which rocks
and soil are washed into the sea, compacted into bedrock, forced up to the surface by
volcanic processes, and eventually worn away into sediment once again. Relying on the
same methods as do modern field geologists, Hutton cited as evidence a cliff at nearby
Siccar Point, where the juxtaposition of vertical layers of gray shale and overlying
horizontal layers of red sandstone could only be explained by the action of stupendous
forces over vast periods of time. There Hutton realized that the sediments now
represented by the gray shale had, after deposition, been uplifted, tilted, eroded away,
and then covered by an ocean, from which the red sandstone was then deposited. The
boundary between the two rock types at Siccar Point is now called the Hutton
Unconformity. The fundamental force, theorized Hutton, was subterranean heat, as
evidenced by the existence of hot springs and volcanoes.
Charles Lyell was a Scottish lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is
best known as the author of Principles of Geology. It has popularized geologist James
Hutton’s concept of “uniformitarianism” — the idea that the Earth was shaped by slow-
moving forces still in operation today. Uniformitarian ideas opposed the common belief
among many geologists that unique catastrophes or supernatural events, like the
biblical flood in the story of Noah, shaped Earth’s surface. The motto of
uniformitarianism was “the present is the key to the past.” Lyell’s friend, Charles
Darwin, took that idea and extended it to biology. Lyell 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.
He also wrongly assumed that these causes must have acted only with the same
intensities now observed, which would rule out asteroid impacts and the like.
Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) is one of the best-known early evolutionists.
Unlike Darwin, Lamarck believed that living things evolved in a continuously upward
direction, from dead matter, through simple to more complex forms, toward human
"perfection."

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 Species didn't die out in extinctions, Lamarck claimed. Instead, they changed
into other species. Since simple organisms exist alongside complex "advanced" animals
today, Lamarck thought they must be continually created by spontaneous generation.
According to Lamarck, organisms altered their behavior in response to environmental
change. Their changed behavior, in turn, modified their organs, and their offspring
inherited those "improved" structures. For example, giraffes developed their elongated
necks and front legs by generations of browsing on high tree leaves. The exercise of
stretching up to the leaves altered the neck and legs, and their offspring inherited these
acquired characteristics. Conversely, in Lamarck's view, a structure or organ would
shrink or disappear if used less or not at all. Driven by these heritable modifications,
all organisms would become adapted to their environments as those environments
changed. “The frequent use of any organ, when confirmed by habit, increases the
functions of that organ, leads to its development and endows it with a size and power
which it does not possess in animals which exercise it less.” Decreased use has the
opposite effect: “The permanent disuse of an organ, arising from a change of habits,
causes a gradual shrinkage and ultimately the disappearance and even extinction of
that organ” Another contribution of Lamarck is the Theory of Inheritance of Acquired
Characteristics. If an organism changes during life in order to adapt to its environment,
those changes are passed on to its offspring.

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 CHARLES DARWIN’S VOYAGE AND HIS OBSERVATIONS THAT LED HIM TO
WRITE “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES”
In 1831, Charles Darwin received an astounding invitation: to accompany
Captain Robert FitzRoy of the HMS Beagle as ship's naturalist for a trip around the
world. For most of the next five years, the Beagle surveyed the coast of South America,
leaving Darwin free to explore the continent and islands, including the Galápagos. He
filled dozens of notebooks with careful observations on animals, plants and geology,
and collected thousands of specimens, which he crated and sent home for further
study. Darwin later called the Beagle voyage "by far the most important event in my
life," saying it "determined my whole career." When he set out, 22-year-old Darwin was
a young university graduate, still planning a career as a clergyman. By the time he
returned, he was an established naturalist, well-known in London for the astonishing
collections he'd sent ahead. He had also grown from a promising observer into a
probing theorist. The Beagle voyage would provide Darwin with a lifetime of experiences
to ponder—and the seeds of a theory he would work on for the rest of his life.

San Cristobal Island was the first island Charles Darwin visited arriving to the
Galapagos on September 16th, 1835. The Beagle anchored in a calm bay on the south
of the island, near the actual capital of the Galapagos. The Beagle spent eight days
surveying the coast. Darwin landed five times pushed by his interest on the volcanic
and cratered island. He studied carefully the lava flows and theorized about its
formation. His first impression of the dry coast he saw was of a deserted and isolated
place. He did not find the tropical richness he expected, instead he encountered desert
plants, almost all-in flower, and some reptiles that he pointed on his notes. In this
island he had the chance to collect the first specie that later on would be the base and
foundation of his Theory of Evolution, the San Cristobal Mockingbird. Floreana was
the second island explored by the Beagle expedition. Here Darwin had three days to
collect species and the second bird to lead him to important conclusions in the future,
the Floreana Mockingbird. He realized the difference in between the previous specimen

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found in San Cristobal, and started to pay more attention to this specie. Later he would
discover the four species to be found in the archipelago and understand a pattern of
evolution due to the adaptation differences from each other according to the
environmental features of each island. Isabela was the third island to arrive in his
voyage on September 29th, 1835. The trip around the island and through the channel
in between Fernandina and Isabela was noted on his field book. Darwin described the
island as the most deserted and volcanically active. When sailing next to it, he observed
the lava flows and the smoke coming out from the craters. The Beagle decided to anchor
in a place named Tagus Cove because of the easy water bay this place forms. Darwin
disembarked on October 1st and explored the volcanic terrain. Here he found the land
of iguanas, both marine and terrestrial that to him were ancient creatures that he
describes more in Santiago visit. After Isabela, the boat sailed around Pinta, Genovesa
and Marchena, offering Darwin the chance to admire the different formations. Santiago
was the last island were Darwin disembarked on October 8th. This is the island where
Darwin stayed the longest, by this time, he knew already that the islands were
something bigger and more important than they seemed when he first arrived. On his
visit he expends 2 weeks and walked the whole island with some crew members that
helped him carrying the specimens he was collecting. Here he first noticed the
difference in between the tortoises from different islands with his own eyes; he was
impressed by the amount of tortoises, which had different shapes and sizes. He wrote
a big deal of characteristics of their behavior and also had the chance to try their meat
in soup. In this island Darwin noticed that most species were similar but different from
other in the other islands, giving enough evidence to theorize that species change and
this is related to their feeding and surroundings. He collected finches that helped him
to understand this resolution. These animals are now considered the world’s fastest
evolving birds because of the adaptations they rapidly developed to cope with their
needs in such a changing environment.
Charles Darwin’s theory argued that organisms gradually evolve through a
process he called “natural selection.” In natural selection, organisms with genetic
variations that suit their environment tend to propagate more descendants than
organisms of the same species that lack the variation, thus influencing the overall
genetic makeup of the species. Darwin, who was influenced by the work of French
naturalist Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and the English economist Thomas Malthus,
acquired most of the evidence for his theory during a five-year surveying expedition
aboard the HMS Beagle in the 1830s. Visiting such diverse places as the Galapagos
Islands and New Zealand, Darwin acquired an intimate knowledge of the flora, fauna,
and geology of many lands. This information, along with his studies in variation and
interbreeding after returning to England, proved invaluable in the development of his
theory of organic evolution. Darwin had formulated his theory of natural selection by
1844, but he was wary to reveal his thesis to the public because it so obviously
contradicted the biblical account of creation. In 1858, with Darwin still remaining
silent about his findings, the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace independently
published a paper that essentially summarized his theory. Darwin and Wallace gave a
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joint lecture on evolution before the Linnean Society of London in July 1858, and
Darwin prepared On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection for publication.
Published on November 24, 1859, Origin of Species sold out immediately. Most
scientists quickly embraced the theory that solved so many puzzles of biological
science, but orthodox Christians condemned the work as heresy.

Activity 1: Compare and contrast

Directions: Using the Venn Diagram, give similarities and difference of two
theories.

Activity 2: Identification.
Directions: Read the following situations below and identify the 5 points of
Darwin’s natural selection.

There are 2 types of worms: worms that eat at night (nocturnal) and worms that
eat during the day (diurnal). The birds eat during the day and seem to be eating ONLY
the diurnal worms. The nocturnal worms are in their burrows during this time. Each
spring when the worms reproduce, they have about 500 babies but only 100 of these
500 ever become old enough to reproduce.
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Darwin's 5 points: Identify the 5 points in the given scenario.
Population has variations. _______________________________________________________
Some variations are favorable. ___________________________________________________
More offspring are produced than survive. ________________________________________
Those that survive have favorable traits. __________________________________________
A population will change over time. _______________________________________________

Activity 3: Identification.
Directions: Match the vocabulary word with the proper definition.
_____1. Change in species over time.
_____2. One of the first scientists to propose that species change over time
_____3. Ship on which Darwin served as naturalist
_____4. his theory of evolution unifies all of biology
_____5. the process by which evolution occurs
_____6. argued that human populations grow faster than the resources they depend
on
_____7. small volcanic islands where Darwin made many important observations
_____8. selecting for plants and animals with useful traits
_____9. argued that gradual geological processes have gradually shaped Earth’s
surface.
_____10. states that traits an organism develops during its own life time can be passed
on to offspring
_____11. developed a theory of evolution at the same time as Darwin
_____12. an organism’s relative ability to survive and produce fertile offspring

Activity 4: Essay
Direction: Explain your answer.

Living things that are well adapted to their environment survive and reproduce.
Those that are not well adapted don’t survive and reproduce. An adaptation is any
characteristic that increases fitness, which is defined as the ability to survive and
reproduce. What characteristic of the mice is an adaptation that increased their
fitness?
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___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________________

VALUING:

“Natural selection will not remove ignorance from future

generations.”- Richard Dawkins

Activity 5. Essay

Directions: In a minimum of 5 sentences, expound the quote.

____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

Post - Test
Direction: Read each question carefully and choose the correct answer from the
choices below.

1. Who argued that human populations grow faster than the resources they depend
on?
A. Thomas Malthus C. Jean Baptiste Lamarck
B. Charles Lyell D. Alfred Russel Wallack
2. One of the first scientists to propose that species change over time was ___.
A. Charles Darwin C. Jean Baptiste Lamarck
B. Charles Lyell. D. Alfred Russel Wallace
3. Where did Darwin make some of his most important observations that helped him
develop his theory?
A. England C. South Africa
B. the Galápagos Islands D. South America
4. Natural selection states that ___.
A. a change in a species occurs over time
B. nature selects the variations within a species that are most useful for
survival
C. fitness is an organism’s ability to survive and produce fertile offspring.
D. all of the above

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 5. Marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) are found only on the Galápagos
Islands, which are located off the coast of Ecuador. These lizards are unique in that
they forage for food in the ocean. Compared to land iguanas, marine iguanas have
certain adaptations that allow them to survive in their coastal habitat. These
adaptations include a long, flattened tail used for swimming and dense leg bones that
give the iguanas stability underwater. Scientists believe the land-dwelling ancestors of
the marine iguana floated on vegetative debris from Central America to the Galápagos
Islands about 4.5 million years ago. Based on the information given above, which of
the following is most likely true about the ancestry of the marine iguana?

A. Iguanas with acquired characteristics for swimming were better able to escape
from predators and were therefore more reproductively successful.
B. The ancestral iguana population had many more individuals with adaptations
for swimming than individuals without these adaptations.
C. Iguanas with phenotypes that were better suited for swimming were able to
exploit a novel food source, so they left more surviving offspring over time.
D. The iguanas needed to survive in an ocean environment when they arrived on
the Galápagos Islands, so they developed adaptive phenotypes over time.

References:
n/a, OpenStax. Cell Cycle with Checkpoints. May 18, 2016. Photograph. Wikimedia
Commons. Wikimedia Commons.
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n/a, Zephyris. Schematic Presentation of the Cell Cycle. January 25, 2020. Photograph.
Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons.
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CNX OpenStax. Biology. May 27, 2016. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia
Commons. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki.File:Figure_10_03_01.jpg.

Reece, Jane B., Lisa A. Urry, Michael L Cain, Steven A. Wasserman, Peter V. Minorsky, and
Robert B. Jackson. “The Cell.” Essay. In Campbell Biology, 9th ed., 228–45. Boston, CA:
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Visconti, Roberta, Rosa Della Monica, and Domenico Grieco. “Cell Cycle Checkpoint in
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Zifan, Ali. A Diagram of Mitosis Stages. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Creative

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Answer Key

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