M1 L5 - Micro Macroevolution

EVOLUTION AT DIFFERENT SCALES:
MICROEVOLUTION TO
MACROEVOLUTION
MODULE 1-LESSON 5 Evolution at Different Scales
MICROEVOLUTION
- small-scale
- genetic change within a population
or below species level
- demonstration is possible
MACROEVOLUTION
- long-term changes above the species
level
- changes affect the lineage and
ultimate appearance of organisms
- takes a much larger time scale https://www.pinterest.com/pin/851039660822720828/
MODULE 1-LESSON 5 Evolution at Different Scales: Microevolution
MICROEVOLUTION *Gene frequency

- represents the abundance/prevalence
- change in gene frequency*
of specific alleles with reference to the
- can be observed over short periods total number of alleles in the gene pool
© University of California Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution, www.understandingevolution.org

On gene frequency:
The frequency of a gene for brown
coloration in a population of beetles
increases between one generation
and the next.
Example:
Gene for the color of the beetle:
Frequency of allele A (green)= 33.33%
Frequency of allele B (brown) = 66.67%
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolution-at-different-scales-micro-to-macro/what-is-microevolution/
How do you know

when you’ve gotten
to the population
level?
EXAMPLES OF MICROEVOLUTION
1. The size of the sparrow • In 1852, house sparrows were
introduced to North America
• They evolved different
characteristics to adapt to
different locations
• In the north: large-bodied
(colder weather)
• In the south: smaller, lighter-
bodied
• Partly a result of natural
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolution-at-different-scales-micro-to-macro/examples-of-microevolution/
selection
EXAMPLES OF MICROEVOLUTION
2. Evolving resistance • mosquitoes evolving
resistance to DDT
(insecticide)
• whiteflies evolving
resistance to pesticides
• bacterial strains evolving
resistance to antibiotics
• Microevolution by natural
selection
DETECTING MICROEVOLUTIONARY CHANGES

• Suppose that you visited the mountaintop
this year, observed the beetles, and found
that 80% of the genes in the population are
for green coloration and 20% of them are for
brown coloration.
• You go back the next year, repeat the
procedure, and noticed a new ratio: 60%
green genes to 40% brown genes.
A change in gene frequency over time
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolution-at-different-scales-micro-to-
means that the population has evolved.
macro/what-is-microevolution/
MECHANISMS LEADING TO MICROEVOLUTION
Mutation Genetic
Drift
Migration (Gene Flow) Natural Selection

1. Mutation
- Some “green genes” randomly mutated to
“brown genes”
2. Migration or Gene Flow

- Some beetles with brown
genes immigrated from
another population, or some
beetles carrying green genes
emigrated.
3. Genetic Drift
- When the beetles reproduced, just by
random luck more brown genes than
green genes ended up in the offspring.
4. Natural Selection
- Beetles with brown genes escaped
predation and survived to reproduce
more frequently than beetles with
green genes, so that more brown genes
got into the next generation.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN

MICROEVOLUTIONARY CHANGES
ACCUMULATE OVER TIME?
MODULE 1-LESSON 5 Evolution at Different Scales: Macroevolution
MACROEVOLUTION
- encompasses the major trends and
transformations
- evident as we look at the large-scale
history of life
- multiple lines of evidences are used
to track macroevolutionary patterns
Evolution of the middle-ear bones, the anvil (incus) and hammer (malleus),
from the jaw-joint bones (quadrate, articular) of cynodonts.
PATTERNS IN MACROEVOLUTION
Speciation
Stasis
Character
Change Extinction
1. Stasis
- lineages do not change much over time
- “living fossils” (e.g., Coelacanth)
PATTERNS IN MACROEVOLUTION: STASIS
https://youtu.be/__Woo6L1bl0
2. Character Change
- lineages can change quickly or slowly
- can happen in a single direction, e.g.,
evolving additional segments, or it can
reverse itself by gaining and then
losing segments
- can occur within a single lineage or
across several lineages
PATTERNS IN MACROEVOLUTION:
CHARACTER CHANGE
The fossil record of trilobites

clearly suggests that several
lineages underwent similar
increases in the number of
segments over the course of
millions of years.
3. Speciation
- lineage-splitting
- patterns can be identified by constructing and examining a phylogeny
4. Extinction
- can be frequent or rare within a lineage,
or it can occur simultaneously across many
lineages (mass extinction).
- >99% of the species that have ever lived
on Earth have gone extinct.
- species that are at high risk of becoming
extinct are known as endangered
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolution-101/macroevolution/patterns-in-macroevolution/
Factors for Extinction Extinction can be avoided by:

1. Natural disasters 1. Making legislations
2. Climate change preventing hunting of
3. Hunting activities (by humans) endangered species
4. Introduction of non- 2. International agreements
native/invasive species (limit climate change)
5. Disease 3. Special programmes (nature
6. Habitat loss or destruction reserves)
7. Overharvesting (aquatic species) 4. Education (protection of
flora, fauna & the
environment)
SPECIATION: Defining a Species

- a group of individuals that actually or potentially interbreed in nature and
produce viable, fertile offsprings
- these happy face spiders look different, but since they can interbreed, they are
considered the same species: Theridion grallator.
SPECIES CONCEPTS
1. Morphological Species Concept
2. Biological Species Concept
3. Phylogenetic Species Concept
4. Recognition Species Concept
5. Genetic Species Concept
6. Cladistic Species Concept
7. Ecological Species Concept
SPECIES CONCEPTS (Cassidy, 2020)

Species Concept Descriptor Notes
1. Morphological species concept Classify organisms on the basis of their Males and females or old and young
appearance are often difficult to distinguish
2. Biological species concept A freely interbreeding population whose Based on a discrete mechanism but
members produce viable offspring. This what about asexual forms or fossils!
concept is based on breeding success
3. Phylogenetic species concept Considers the evolutionary relationships Rather arbitrary division of lineages
between organisms and their common
ancestry. The species represents a terminal
‘branch’ of the evolutionary Tree
4. Recognition species concept Emphasizes the development of Applies only to sexually reproducing
different fertilization systems; it is based on organisms
the ‘recognition’ (for mating purposes) of
one species by another
SPECIES CONCEPTS (Cassidy, 2020)

Species Concept Descriptor Notes
5. Genetic species concept Species are defined by the measure of Particularly useful for prokaryotes
genetic similarity and hence their and closely related forms.
‘relatedness’ Interpretation of ‘genetic distance’
can be subjective
6. Cladistic species concept Uses the presence of shared or derived Relative to a particular clade only
characters (synapomorphies) as its
main criterion
7. Ecological species concept Employs the discrete adaptations of Omits the variability of niche
organisms to environmental niches. separation. Some species may be
This acknowledges the role of the overlooked; there is also the
environment in shaping morphological difficulty of objectively defining a
and physiological development niche
SPECIATION
- lineage-splitting event that
produces two or more
separate species
The question is:

how and why does it
happen?
CAUSES OF SPECIATION
1. Geographic Isolation - a common way for the process of
speciation to begin: rivers change course, mountains rise,
continents drift, and organisms migrate.
2. Reduction of Gene Flow
- no specific extrinsic barrier to
gene flow
- no total isolation
- in the absence of a geographic
barrier, reduced gene flow
- may or may not be sufficient
across a species’ range can
to cause speciation encourage speciation
3. Speciation by Genetic Conflict
• occurs when an allele increases its own transmission to the detriment of
other alleles at the same or other loci
• Many mutations have been found that transmit more copies of themselves to the
next generation not by increasing survival or reproduction, but by violating the
rules of inheritance = segregation distortion.
• Selection therefore favors mutations at other loci that restore full fertility by
disabling the segregation distortion caused by the “selfish” mutation.
• When this conflict between distorter and a restorer has played out in one
population but not another, the populations may be genetically incompatible.
4. Speciation by Sexual Selection
• In many groups of rapidly speciating animals and plants, species differ
more in their secondary sexual traits, such as male coloration or
vocalization, than in ecologically important traits.
• In many cases, one sex (let’s suppose the female) chooses mates based on
variation in these traits.
• For example, male calls and female preferences covary among populations of
a Hawaiian cricket (Laupala cerasina), to the point that females hardly
respond to the calls of the most different population
5. Speciation by Polyploidy
• When a diploid species’ entire genome is doubled, the result is a tetraploid
that has four copies of every chromosome.
• Tetraploids originate by the union of two “unreduced” gametes—both carrying a
full diploid set of chromosomes—that are formed when chromosomes
occasionally fail to segregate in meiosis.
• The polyploid offspring is:
a) Autopolyploid, if both unreduced gametes come from the same diploid species
b) Allopolyploid, if they come from different diploid species.
• Rare in animals but quite common in some groups of plants
Several species of goatsbeards

(Tragopogon) are tetraploids
that have formed by
hybridization (allotetraploids).
• The diploid species T. dubius and
T. pratensis hybridized and
produced the tetraploid species T.
miscellus.
• T. dubius has also hybridized with
the diploid T. porrifolius to
produce the tetraploid T. mirus.
MODES OF SPECIATION
For a lineage to split once and for all, the two incipient species must have genetic
differences that are expressed in some way that causes mating between them to
either not happen or to be unsuccessful.
1. Allopatric Speciation (allo = other, patric = place)

2. Peripatric Speciation (peri = near, patric = place)
3. Parapatric Speciation (para = beside, patric = place)
4. Sympatric Speciation (sym = same, patric = place)
MODES OF SPECIATION: Allopatric Speciation
• New species are formed from

geographically isolated populations
• something extrinsic to the organisms
prevents two or more groups from
mating with each other regularly,
eventually causing that lineage to
speciate
MODES OF SPECIATION: Peripatric Speciation
New species are formed

from a small population
isolated at the edge of a
larger population.
MODES OF SPECIATION: Parapatric Speciation
• New species are formed from a

continuously distributed
population.
• Individuals are more likely to
mate with their geographic
neighbors than with individuals
in a different part of the
population’s range
MODES OF SPECIATION: Sympatric Speciation
• New species formed from within

the range of the ancestral
population.
• does not require large-scale
geographic distance to reduce gene
flow between parts of a population
MODES OF SPECIATION
MODES OF SPECIATION
TWO CATEGORIES OF ISOLATING MECHANISMS: How do

two closely related species not interbreed?
Defined in terms of zygote formation (the fusion of sperm and egg), or
rather the failure thereof:
1. Prezygotic Mechanisms – no zygote is formed
2. Postzygotic Mechanisms - zygote is formed but the result fails; it
is inviable, sterile or at a strong
selective disadvantage

Prezygotic Mechanisms – may either be physical or biological.
The major causes are:
a) Potential mates do not meet (physical separation)
→ Temporal isolation & habitat isolation
b) Potential mates meet but do not mate (behavioural isolation)
c) Mating takes place, but without transfer of gametes (mechanical
isolation)
d) Gamete transfer occurs, but there is no zygote formation (gametic
incompatibility)

Prezygotic Mechanisms:
a) Temporal isolation - the two sympatric species will have
different mating times
b) Habitat isolation - where the organism is sessile (immobile) and
thus fixed
c) Behavioral isolation - incompatibility in their mating behaviour

Postzygotic Mechanisms:
a) Hybrid inviability: Hybrid individuals in many cases cannot form
normally in the womb and simply do not survive past the
embryonic stages
b) Hybrid sterility: reproduction leads to the birth and growth of a
hybrid that is sterile and unable to reproduce offspring of their
own
Aww what a cute geep! Wait, what's a geep? (youtube.com)

RATES OF SPECIATION
GRADUALISM/
GRADUAL SPECIATION
PUNCTUATED
EQUILIBRIUM
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-biology2/chapter/rates-of-speciation/
RATES OF SPECIATION: Gradualism

- Evolution is slow and incremental: In the accepted Darwinian view, evolution
proceeds through a series of small genetic changes gradually leading to a change
in the phenotype and the eventual formation of new species.
RATES OF SPECIATION: Punctuated Equilibrium

- Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould said that species in the fossil record often
show long periods of little or no detectable phenotypic change, interrupted by
rapid shifts from one such “equilibrium” state to another; that is, stasis that is
“punctuated” by rapid change
- new species undergo changes quickly from parent species and then remain
unchanged for large periods of time.
Punctuated equilibria. The phylogeny and

temporal distribution of a lineage of
bryozoans (Metrarabdotos). The horizontal
distance between points represents the
amount ofmorphological difference between
samples. The general pattern is one of abrupt
shifts to new, rather stable morphologies.
Only a part of the full phylogeny of the genus,
which has many more species, is shown.
©A. Cheetham

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EVOLUTION AT DIFFERENT SCALES:

MICROEVOLUTION *Gene frequency

© University of California Museum of Paleontology, Understanding Evolution, www.understandingevolution.org

How do you know

DETECTING MICROEVOLUTIONARY CHANGES

MECHANISMS LEADING TO MICROEVOLUTION

Migration (Gene Flow) Natural Selection

MECHANISMS LEADING TO MICROEVOLUTION

MECHANISMS LEADING TO MICROEVOLUTION

2. Migration or Gene Flow

MECHANISMS LEADING TO MICROEVOLUTION

MECHANISMS LEADING TO MICROEVOLUTION

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN

PATTERNS IN MACROEVOLUTION: STASIS

The fossil record of trilobites

Factors for Extinction Extinction can be avoided by:

SPECIATION: Defining a Species

SPECIES CONCEPTS (Cassidy, 2020)

SPECIES CONCEPTS (Cassidy, 2020)

The question is:

Several species of goatsbeards

1. Allopatric Speciation (allo = other, patric = place)

MODES OF SPECIATION: Allopatric Speciation

• New species are formed from

MODES OF SPECIATION: Peripatric Speciation

New species are formed

MODES OF SPECIATION: Parapatric Speciation

• New species are formed from a

MODES OF SPECIATION: Sympatric Speciation

• New species formed from within

TWO CATEGORIES OF ISOLATING MECHANISMS: How do

TWO CATEGORIES OF ISOLATING MECHANISMS: How do

TWO CATEGORIES OF ISOLATING MECHANISMS: How do

TWO CATEGORIES OF ISOLATING MECHANISMS: How do

Aww what a cute geep! Wait, what's a geep? (youtube.com)

RATES OF SPECIATION: Gradualism

RATES OF SPECIATION: Punctuated Equilibrium

Punctuated equilibria. The phylogeny and

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