Introduction to Evolution

S. A. MUSA, PhD
Department of Anatomy
Ahmadu Bello University, Zria
 Introduction
• Evolution is the process of change in all forms of life
over generations, and evolutionary biology is the
study of how evolution occurs.
• Biological populations evolve through genetic
changes that correspond to changes in the
organisms' observable traits.
• Evolution by means of natural selection is the
process by which traits that enhance survival and
reproduction become more common in successive
generations of a population.
 What is the main idea of Evolution?

 Darwin's theory consisted of two main points:
1) diverse groups of animals evolve from one
or a few common ancestors;
• 2) the mechanism by which this evolution
takes place is natural selection.
 Theory of Evolution
• The Theory of evolution by natural selection, first
formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in
1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as
a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits.
• In the early 19th century Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 –
1829) proposed his theory of the transmutation of species,
the first fully formed theory of evolution.
• Jean Baptiste Lamarck proposed that organisms have an
innate tendency toward complexity and perfection. Which is
a major concept included in Lamarck's theory of evolution?
Body structure can change according to the actions of the
organisms.
 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 – 1829)

• Lamarckism (or Lamarckian inheritance) is the
hypothesis that an organism can pass on
characteristics that it has acquired through
use or disuse during its lifetime to its
offspring.
• It is also known as the inheritance of acquired
characteristics or soft inheritance.
 Charles Darwin
• In 1858 Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace
published a new evolutionary theory, explained in
detail in Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859).

• The theory of evolution by natural selection, first

formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of
Species" in 1859, is the process by which
organisms change over time as a result of changes
in heritable physical or behavioral traits
 Charles Darwin

 Charles Darwin was

an English graduate educated
and trained in the disciplines
of natural history.
 Such natural historians would
collect, catalogue, describe
and study the vast collections
of specimens stored and
managed by curators at these
museums.
 Some Examples of Evolution
Evolution Examples in Nature:
 Peppered moth - This moth had a light coloring
darkened after the Industrial Revolution, due
to the pollution of the time.
 This mutation came about because the light
colored moths were seen by birds more
readily, so with natural selection, the dark
colored moths survived to reproduce.
 Some Examples of Evolution
• It can turn dinosaurs into birds, amphibious
mammals into whales and the ancestors of
apes into humans.
• Take the example of whales —
using evolution as their guide and knowing
how natural selection works, biologists knew
that the transition of early whales from land to
water occurred in a series of predictable steps.
 Types of Evolution
 Factors such as environment and predation pressures can have
different effects on the ways in which species exposed to them
evolve.
 Three main types of evolution:

1. Convergent evolution: is when the same adaptations have evolved

independently in different lineages of species under similar selection
pressures.
 Today we see convergent evolution in species as diverse as: shark
and camels, shrimps and grasshoppers, flamingos and
spoonbills, marsupial and placental mammals and bioluminescent
sea creatures. We also see it in the ears and teeth of mammals.
 Types of Evolution
2. Co-evolution: is when the evolutionary history of
two species or groups of species is intimately
intertwined.
 Examples include: the co-evolution of flowering
plants and pollinators such
as bees, lizards and moths;  pocket gophers and
their lice; humans and intestinal microbes; and the
war our immune systems wage with the pathogens
that attack us.
 Types of Evolution
3. Adaptive radiation: is the rapid speciation of one
ancestral species to fill many empty ecological niches.
 Adaptive radiations are most common when animals
and plants arrive at previously uninhabited islands.
 Examples of adaptive radiation can be found in:
the Galapagos finches, Australia’s marsupials,
Hawaii’s honeycreepers and fruit flies, Madagascar’s
carnivores and other mammals, New Zealand’s birds
and the prehistoric flying pterosaurs.
 What is the main cause of Evolution?

• The change in genetic composition of a

population over successive generations, which
may be caused by natural selection, inbreeding,
hybridization, or mutation.
• Note: Natural selection is only one of several
mechanisms that can cause evolution (= change
in the genetic basis of a population).
 Who is the Father of Evolution?

 Charles Darwin
• Although Charles Darwin is considered to be by
many the "father" of evolutionary thought, he
was in fact aided and guided by the works of
many scientists before him.
• The theories and ideas proposed by his
predecessors were limited to the information
available at the time.
 Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

I. More individuals are produced each

generation that can survive.
II. Phenotypic variation exists among individuals
and the variation is heritable.
III. Those individuals with heritable traits better
suited to the environment will survive.
IV. When reproductive isolation occurs new
species will form.
 Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection

• These are the basic tenets of evolution by natural selection as

defined by Darwin. The following is a quote from Darwin:
• "Variation is a feature of natural populations and every
population produces more progeny than its environment can
manage.
• The consequences of this overproduction is that those individuals
with the best genetic fitness for the environment will produce
offspring that can more successfully compete in that environment.
• Thus the subsequent generation will have a higher representation
of these offspring and the population will have evolved."
• Natural selection is not a process of chance: the
environment determines the probability of
reproductive success.
• Evolution is an inevitable result of imperfectly copying,
self-replicating organisms reproducing over billions of
years under the selective pressure of the environment.
• The outcome of evolution is not a perfectly designed
organism.
• The end products of natural selection are organisms
that are adapted to their present environments.
• Natural selection does not involve progress towards an
ultimate goal.
• Evolution does not strive for more advanced, more
intelligent, or more sophisticated life forms.
• For example, fleas (wingless parasites) are descended
from a winged, ancestral scorpionfly,
and snakes are lizards that no longer require limbs—
although pythons still grow tiny structures that are the
remains of their ancestor's hind legs.
• Organisms are merely the outcome of variations that
succeed or fail, dependent upon the environmental
conditions at the time.
 Genetic drift
• Genetic drift is a cause of allelic frequency change
within populations of a species. 
• Alleles are different variations of specific genes. They
determine things like hair color, skin tone, eye
color and blood type; in other words, all the genetic
traits that vary between individuals.
• Genetic drift does not introduce new alleles to a
population, but it can reduce variation within a
population by removing an allele from the gene pool.
• Genetic drift is caused by random sampling of alleles
 Founder effect
• The founder effect occurs when a small group from
one population splits off and forms a new population,
often through geographic isolation.
• This new population's allelic frequency is probably
different from the original population's, and will
change how common certain alleles are in the
populations.
• The founders of the population will determine the
genetic makeup, and potentially the survival, of the
new population for generations
Founder effect
 Founder effect
• One example of the founder effect is found in
the Amish migration to Pennsylvania in 1744.
• Two of the founders of the colony in Pennsylvania
carried the recessive allele for Ellis–van Creveld
syndrome.
• Because the Amish tend to be religious isolates,
they interbreed, and through generations of this
practice the frequency of Ellis–van Creveld
syndrome in the Amish people is much higher than
the frequency in the general population.