Pgs 452-459

Chapter 22: descent with Modification (Darwin View of Life)

The Darwinian revolution challenged traditional views of a young earth inhabited by unchanging
species:

Fossils- the remains or traces of organisms from the past

- Found in sedimentary rocks formed from the sand and mud that settle to the bottom of
seas,lakes, and swamps
- Strata- new layers of sediment cover old ones and compress them into superimposed
layers of rock
Paleontology- the study of fossils
- Catastrophism- the principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were
caused by mechanisms different from those operating in the present
- Cuvier speculated that each boundary between a strata represented a
catastrophes (flood that destroyed many of the species)
James Hutton- proposed that earth’s geologic features could be explained by a gradual
mechanisms still operating today
- Ex: valleys formed by rivers wearing through rock and rocks containing marine fossils
were formed when sediments that has eroded from land were carried to river/sea
Uniformitarianism- (Charles Lyll) mechanisms of change are constant over time

Descent with modification by natural selection explains the adaptations of organisms and the
unity and diversity of life:

Adaptations- characteristics of organisms that enhance their survival and reproduction in

specific environments
- natural selection- a process in which individuals with certain inherited traits leave more
offspring than individuals with other traits
Darwin believed in “descent with modification”

artificial selection- humans have modified other species over many generations by selecting
and breeding individuals that possess a desirable trait

Darwin's observations:
1. Members of a population often vary in traits
2. Traits are inherited from parents to offspring
3. A species are capable of producing more offspring than their environment can support
4. Owing to a lack of food or other sources, many of these offspring do not survive

Pgs 460-466

Evolution is supported by an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence:

 - Intense predation causes natural selection
- Natural selection is a process of editing rather than a creative mechanism
- Ex: drug does not create resistant pathogens, it selects for resistant individuals
that were already present in the population
- Natural selection depends on time and place
- Factors those characteristics in a genetically variable population

Homology- related species can have characteristics with an underlying similarity even though
they may have different functions
- Homologous structures- represent variations of structural theme that was present in
their common ancestor
- Vestigial structures- remnants of features that served important functions in the
organism’s ancestors

Evolutionary tree- a diagram that reflects evolutionary relationships among groups of

organisms

convergent evolution- the independent evolution of similar features in different lineages

- Analogous- species share features because of convergent evolution

Biogeography- the geographic distribution of species

- Continental drift- the slow movement of earth's continents over time
- Pangaea- these movements untied all of earth's landmasses into this large continent

Pgs 468-478

Ch 23. The Evolution of Populations

Mutation and sexual reproduction produce the genetic variation that makes evolution possible:

Discrete characters- determined by a single gene locus with different alleles that produce
distinct phenotypes

Average heterozygosity- the average percentage of loci that are heterozygous, determines
gene variability
- Determined by surveying the protein products of genes using gel electrophoresis, can
not detect silent mutations
- Nucleotide variability is measured by comparing the DNA sequences of two individuals in
a population then averaging the data