2

General
Biology 2 12
General Biology 2 – Grade 12
Quarter 3 – Module 10: Evidences of Evolution
First Edition, 2020

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Published by the Department of Education Division of Pasig City

Development Team of the Self-Learning Module

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Management Team: Ma. Evalou Concepcion A. Agustin
OIC-Schools Division Superintendent
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Printed in the Philippines by Department of Education – Schools Division of

Pasig City
General
Biology 2
12
Quarter 3
Module 10
Evidences of Evolution
Introductory Message

For the facilitator:

Welcome to the General Biology 2 of Grade 12 Module 10 on Evidences of Evolution!

This module was collaboratively designed, developed and reviewed by educators from
Schools Division Office of Pasig City headed by its Officer-In-Charge Schools Division
Superintendent, Ma. Evalou Concepcion A. Agustin in partnership with the Local
Government of Pasig through its mayor, Honorable Vico Sotto.
The writers utilized the standards set by the K to 12 Curriculum using the Most
Essential Learning Competencies (MELC) while overcoming their personal, social,
and economic constraints in schooling.

This learning material hopes to engage the learners into guided and independent
learning activities at their own pace and time. Further, this also aims to help learners
acquire the needed 21st century skills especially the 5 Cs namely: Communication,
Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Character while taking into
consideration their needs and circumstances.

In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the body of
the module:

Notes to the Teacher

This contains helpful tips or strategies that
will help you in guiding the learners.

As a facilitator you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this module.
You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing them to manage
their own learning. Moreover, you are expected to encourage and assist the learners
as they do the tasks included in the module.
For the learner:

Welcome to the General Biology 2 Module 10 on Evidences of Evolution!

The hand is one of the most symbolized part of the human body. It is often used to
depict skill, action and purpose. Through our hands we may learn, create and
accomplish. Hence, the hand in this learning resource signifies that you as a learner
is capable and empowered to successfully achieve the relevant competencies and
skills at your own pace and time. Your academic success lies in your own hands!

This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful opportunities for
guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You will be enabled to
process the contents of the learning material while being an active learner.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

Expectation - These are what you will be able to know after

completing the lessons in the module

Pre-test - This will measure your prior knowledge and the

concepts to be mastered throughout the lesson.

Recap - This section will measure what learnings and skills

that you understand from the previous lesson.

Lesson- This section will discuss the topic for this module.

Activities - This is a set of activities you will perform.

Wrap Up- This section summarizes the concepts and

applications of the lessons.
Valuing-this part will check the integration of values in the
learning competency.

Post-test - This will measure how much you have learned from
the entire module.
 EXPECTATION
In the previous lesson, you have learned about the different theories about
evolution, one of which is Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection
that led to the Modern Synthesis as the unified theory of evolution. At the end of this
module, you should be able to:

1. illustrate the evidences of evolution; and

2. explain how the fossil record has aided in the development of the theory of
evolution.

PRETEST

Directions: Read the statements/questions comprehensively and choose the letter of

the best answer. Write the answer on the separate sheet of paper.
1. What best describes the hind leg bones seen in the whale?
A. Homologous structures to the wings of butterflies
B. Vestigial structures that had a function in an ancestor
C. Analogous structures to the fins of living fish
D. Fossil structures from an extinct ancestor
2. How do fossils support evolution?
A. The fossil record provides evidence that organisms have changed over
time.
B. Individual species disappear and reappear in the fossil record over time.
C. Organisms in the fossil record are identical to living organisms.
D. The fossil record provides evidence that all organisms developed at the
same time.
3. Structures with the same parts have different functions; suggests that organisms
share a common ancestry?
A. Vestigial structures.
B. Adaptive radiation.
C. Homologous structures.
D. Fossil.
4. If an organism has a vestigial structure, that structure likely once had a function
in a(n) ___.
A. Close relative.
B. Unrelated organism.
C. Early ancestor.
D. Embryological stage.
5. A characteristic that can be passed from parent to offspring through genes is
called a _________.
A. Resistance
B. Genetic change
C. Selective breeding
D. Trait

RECAP
Activity 10.1. Essay.

Direction: Explain how giraffe’s neck gets longer and longer using the theories of
modern synthesis.

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 LESSON

EVIDENCE FROM FOSSILS

Fossils are the remains

of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, and single-celled
living things that have been replaced by rock material
or impressions of organisms preserved in rock.
Paleontologists use fossil remains to understand
different aspects of extinct and living organisms.
Individual fossils may contain information about an Figure 1. Ammonite fossil. Photo
.
organism’s life and environment. Much like the rings by Wikimedia
of a tree, for example, each ring on the surface of
an oyster shell denotes one year of its life. Studying oyster fossils can help
paleontologists discover how long the oyster lived, and in what conditions. If
the climate was favorable for the oyster, the oyster probably grew more quickly and
the rings would be thicker. If the oyster struggled for survival, the rings would be
thinner. Thinner rings would indicate an environment not favorable to organisms
like the oyster—too warm or too cold for the oyster, for example, or lacking nutrients
necessary for them to grow. Some fossils show how an organism lived. Amber, for
instance, is hardened, fossilized tree resin. At times, the sticky resin has dripped
down a tree trunk, trapping air bubbles, as well as small insects and some organisms
as large as frogs and lizards. Paleontologists study amber, called “fossil resin,” to
observe these complete specimens. Amber can preserve tissue as delicate as
dragonfly wings. Some ants were trapped in amber while eating leaves, allowing
scientists to know exactly what they ate, and how they ate it. Even the air bubbles
trapped in amber are valuable to paleontologists. By analyzing the chemistry of the
air, scientists can tell if there was a volcanic eruption or other atmospheric
changes nearby.

The behavior of organisms can also be deduced from fossil evidence.

Paleontologists suggest that hadrosaurs, duck-billed dinosaurs, lived in large herds,
for instance. They made this hypothesis after observing evidence of social behavior,
including a single site with approximately 10,000 skeletons. Fossils can also provide
evidence of the evolutionary history of organisms. Paleontologists infer that
whales evolved from land-dwelling animals, for instance. Fossils of extinct animals
closely related to whales have front limbs like paddles, similar to front legs. They
even have tiny back limbs. Although the front limbs of these fossil animals are in
some ways similar to legs, in other ways they also show strong similarities to the fins
of modern whales.
 EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION FROM STRUCTURES

If two or more species share a unique physical feature, such as a complex

bone structure or a body plan, they may all have inherited this feature from a
common ancestor. Physical features shared due
to evolutionary history (a common ancestor) are
said to be homologous. To give one classic
example, the forelimbs of whales, humans,
birds, and dogs look pretty different on the
outside. That's because they're adapted to
function in different environments. However, if
you look at the bone structure of the forelimbs,
you'll find that the pattern of bones is very
similar across species. It's unlikely that such
Figure 2. Bones in the forelimbs of
vertebrates. Wikimedia.
similar structures would have evolved
independently in each species, and more likely
that the basic layout of bones was already present in a common ancestor of whales,
humans, dogs, and birds. Some homologous structures can be seen only in embryos.
For instance, all vertebrate embryos (including humans) have gill slits and a tail
during early development. The developmental patterns of these species become more
different later on (which is why your embryonic tail is now your tailbone, and your
gill slits have turned into your jaw and inner ear. Homologous embryonic structures
reflect that the developmental programs of vertebrates are variations on a similar
plan that existed in their last common ancestor.

Not all physical features that look alike are marks of common ancestry.
Instead, some physical similarities are analogous: they evolved independently in
different organisms because the organisms lived
in similar environments or experienced similar
selective pressures. This process is
called convergent evolution. For example, two
distantly related species that live in the Arctic, the
arctic fox and the ptarmigan (a bird), both
undergo seasonal changes of color from dark to
snowy white. This shared feature doesn’t reflect
common ancestry – i.e., it's unlikely that the last
common ancestor of the fox and ptarmigan
Figure 3. Analogous similarity between changed color with the seasons. Instead, this
butterfly and bat wings. Wikimedia. feature was favored separately in both species due
to similar selective pressures. That is, the
genetically determined ability to switch to light coloration in winter helped both foxes
and ptarmigans survive and reproduce in a place with snowy winters and sharp-eyed
predators.

.
 A "vestigial structure" or "vestigial organ" is an anatomical feature or behavior
that no longer seems to have a purpose in the current form of an organism of the
given species. Often, these vestigial structures were organs that performed some
important functions in the organism at one point in the
past. However, as the population changed due to natural
selection, those structures became less and less
necessary until they were rendered pretty much useless.
They are believed to be leftovers, only vestiges of the past.
That said, some structures that were once thought of as
vestigial are now thought as useful, such as the whale
Figure 4. Vestigial hindlegs in
pelvis or the human appendix. As with many things in
boa constrictor. Wikimedia science, the case isn't closed. As more knowledge is
discovered, the information we know is revised and
refined. The animal kingdom is ripe with vestigial
structures in their skeletons and bodies. Snakes
descended from lizards, with their legs growing smaller
and smaller until all that was left is a small bump (leg
bones buried in muscle) at the back of some of the
largest snakes, such as pythons and boa constrictors.
Blind fish and salamanders who live in caves still have
eye structures. One explanation, in the case of the fish,
Figure 5. Tailbone of humans.
is that mutations in the genes that increase taste buds Wikimedia
degrade the eyes. The coccyx or
the tailbone: Obviously, humans no longer have visible external tails, because the
current version of humans do not need tails to live in trees as earlier human
ancestors did.

An embryo is an unborn (or unhatched) animal or human young in its

earliest phases. The study of one type of evidence of evolution is called
embryology, the study of embryos. Embryos of many different kinds of animals:
mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, etc. look very similar and it is often difficult to
tell them apart. Many traits of one type of animal appear in t he embryo of
another type of animal. For example, fish embryos and human embryos both
have gill slits. In fish they develop into gills, but in humans they disappear
before birth. This shows that the animals are similar and that they develop
similarly, implying that they are related, have common ancestors and that they
started out the same, gradually evolving different traits, but that the basic plan
for a creature's beginning remains the same.

Like structural homologies, similarities between biological molecules can

reflect shared evolutionary ancestry. At the most basic level, all living organisms
share the same genetic material, the same or highly similar genetic codes, and the
same process of gene expression. These shared features suggest that all living things
are descended from a common ancestor, and that this ancestor had DNA as its
genetic material, used the genetic code, and expressed its
genes by transcription and translation. Present-day organisms
all share these features because they were "inherited" from the
ancestor. Although they're great for establishing the common
origins of life, features like having DNA or carrying out
transcription and translation are not so useful for figuring
out how related particular organisms are. If we want to
determine which organisms in a group are most closely
Figure 6. DNA gel
related, we need to use different types of molecular features,
comparing of fours
such as the nucleotide sequences of genes. species. Wikimedia

Biogeography is the study of geographical distribution of fossils and living

organisms. Organisms usually arise in areas where similar forms already exist.
Similar organisms may also be found in different
locations which could mean that the two places
were previously connected. For example, broad
groupings of organisms that had already evolved
before the breakup of the
supercontinent Pangaea (about 200 million
years ago) tend to be distributed worldwide. In
contrast, broad groupings that evolved after the
breakup tend to appear uniquely in smaller
Figure 7. Supercontinent Pangea. Wikimedia regions of Earth. Environment cannot always
account for either similarity or dissimilarity.
Closely related species can evolve different traits under different environmental
pressures. Likewise, very distantly related species can evolve similar traits if they
have similar environmental pressures.
 ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY 10.2: Essay.

Directions: For each animal, indicate what type of movement each limb is responsible
for.
Animal Primary function:
Using tools, picking up and holding
Human
objects

Whale

Cat

Bat

Bird

Crocodile

Activity 10.3. Essay.

Directions. Below are some vestigial structures found in humans.

Structure Possible function

Wisdom tooth

Appendix

Muscles for moving the ears

Body hair

Tail bone
ACTIVITY 10.4: Compare and contrast

Directions: Using the Venn Diagram, give the similarities and difference between the
two structures.

Homologous Analogous

WRAP–UP

Activity 10.5.

As you flip through the newspaper, you notice that the front-page article is
about evolution. You are curious, since you are becoming an expert on evolution, so
you read it. These are the first 4 sentences of the article…

There is no way that evolution happened. It is something that

scientists made up. There is no proof that evolution ever happened. How can
we know what happened millions of years ago?

After reading the whole article, you feel that it is your duty as a science scholar
to write a letter to the editor of this newspaper to provide facts about evolution to the
public. Write your letter in the space below.

1. Begin the letter: Dear Editor,

2. Write 1 paragraph (at least 6 sentences) about how scientists know that
evolution happened, or that life has changed over time. In your paragraph,
use, UNDERLINE, and explain the following terms: - evolution, comparative
anatomy, homologous structures, DNA, & fossil
3. At the end, sign your name.
 VALUING

“The evidence for evolution pours in, not only from geology,
paleontology, biogeography and anatomy, but of course from
molecular biology and every other branch of the life
sciences.” – Daniel Dennett

Activity 10.6. Essay

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

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POST TEST
Direction: Read each question carefully and choose the correct answer from the
choices below.

1. Scientists compare organisms' DNA to support the theory that all species
share a common ___?
A. Separation C. Ancestor
B. Population D. Environment
2. Some organisms that share a common ancestor have features that have
different functions, but similar structures. These are known as ___?
A. Vestigial structures C. Analogous structures
B. Homologous structures D. Fossil structures
3. Two organisms that are closely related would have ___?
A. Very similar DNA sequence. C. Exactly the same DNA sequences
B. No proteins in common. D. Completely different DNA sequence
4. Scientists think that dolphins and whales may have evolved from a common
ancestor. What evidence supports this hypothesis?
A. They swim the same way. C. They eat the same food.
B. They live in the same area of the ocean. D. They have similar anatomy
5. If scientist were to find 4 fossils that appear to be of the same ancestor, what
can be concluded?
A. number of each fossil are similar
B. fossils were found in the same rock layer
C. members of the group living today live together
D. fossils have similar characteristics
 R E F E R E N CE S
n/a, OpenStax. Cell Cycle with Checkpoints. May 18, 2016. Photograph. Wikimedia
Commons. Wikimedia Commons.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki.File:Cell_Cycle_With_Cyclins_and_Checkpoints.jpg.

n/a, Zephyris. Schematic Presentation of the Cell Cycle. January 25, 2020.
Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki.File:Cell_Cycle_2.svg.

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: Benjamin Cummings / Pearson, 2011.

Visconti, Roberta, Rosa Della Monica, and Domenico Grieco. “Cell Cycle Checkpoint
in Cancer: a Therapeutically Targetable Double-Edged Sword.” Journal of
Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 35, no. 1 (September 27, 2016):
153–53. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13046-016-0433-9.

Zifan, Ali. A Diagram of Mitosis Stages. Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Creative

Commons Attributions, June 26, 2016. Wikimedia Commons.
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki.File:Mitosis_Stages.svg.