HUMAN Bhavyashree

maggo
EVOLUTION AND 12th grade

THEORIES
RELATED
Evolution Of human
Support of lamarckism
following cut-outs are from Darwin’s book
“the origin of life”
Support of lamarckism
Example of lamarckism :- The
giraffe, seeking to browse higher
and higher on the leaves of trees
on which it feeds, stretches its
neck. As a result of this habit,
continued for a long time in all
the individuals of the species,
the giraffe’s front limbs and neck
have gradually grown longer.
 Drawback of lamarckism
Lamarckism has several drawbacks. One is that it does not take into account
the genetic variation of organisms. Organisms may inherit traits, but they
may also lose traits, or the traits may change. Another drawback is that it
does not explain how new traits generated.
Weismann disproved theory of inheritance of acquired
characters.
In an effort to disprove the idea of
inheritable acquired
characteristics, Weismann cut off the tails of
male and female mice after birth to show
that, even over many generations, tail
chopping never produced tailless progeny
 Story of Darwin finches
From 1831 to 1836, Darwin travelled
around the world, observing animals
on different continents and islands.
On the Galapagos Islands, Darwin
observed several species of finches
with unique beak shapes. He
observed these finches closely
resembled another finch species on
the mainland of South America and
that the group of species in the
Galápagos formed a graded series of
beak sizes and shapes, with very
small differences between the most
similar.
DARWIN MENTIONED ABOUT
FINCHES IN HIS FISRT BOOK
Darwin’s Finches: Darwin observed that
beak shape varies among finch
species. He postulated that the beak of
an ancestral species had adapted over
time to equip the finches to acquire
different food sources. This
illustration shows the beak shapes for
four species of ground finch: 1.
Geospiza magnirostris (the large
ground finch), 2. G. Fortis (the
medium ground finch), 3. G. Parvula
(the small tree finch), and 4. Certhidea
olivacea (the green-warbler finch).
Food habits of Darwin finches

On the Galápagos, finches

evolved based on different
food sources — long, pointed
beaks served well for
snatching insects while
broad, blunt beaks work best
for cracking seeds and nuts
Theory 1 :- Natural selection by Darwin
Key concept of Darwinian theory of
evolution
Natural selection and Branching descent are
considered to be the two key concepts of
the Darwinian theory of evolution.

What is branching descent???

Branching descent refers to the process of evolving a
new species from a single common ancestor. As new
species emerged, they became regionally adapted to
their new surroundings.
 How does natural selection
work?
In natural selection, genetic mutations that are beneficial to an
individual’s survival are passed on through reproduction. This
results in a new generation of organisms that are more likely to
survive to reproduce.

For example, evolving long necks has enabled giraffes to feed on

leaves that others can’t reach, giving them a competitive
advantage. Thanks to a better food source, those with longer
necks were able to survive to reproduce and so pass on the
characteristic to the succeeding generation. Those with shorter
necks and access to less food would be less likely to survive to
pass on their genes.
Sexual selection by darwin
Origin: Introduced by Charles Darwin in his book “The
Descent of Man” (1871).

Purpose: Describes a mechanism for the evolution of

traits related to mating success rather than solely
survival.
Types of Selection:
Intrasexual Competition: Competition within one Sexually selected traits are those traits
gender for access to mates. that help an organism reproduce by
competing for and attracting a mate.
Some examples include the plumage in
Intersexual Selection: Mate choice by one gender a peacock, which attracts mates, and
based on specific traits. the horns on a ram, which help it
compete for a mate.
Artificial selection
Darwin used artificial selection (ASN)
extensively and variedly in his
theorizing. Darwin used ASN as an
analogy to natural selection; he
compared artificial to natural varieties,
hereditary variation in nature to that in
the breeding farm; and he also
compared the overall effectiveness of
the two processes
Breeding pigeons was a popular hobby in England in
Darwin's time. By selecting which pigeons were allowed to
mate, people had a profound effect on their appearance,
such as the shape and size of their beaks and the color of
their feathers.
 Theory of
Pangenesis