Evolution and Natural

Selection
The Stories of Charles Darwin and his theory of
evolution
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3 What is evolution?
READY?

Who is the most notable

proponent of the evolution
theory? 10
Evolution Defined
 Evolution was first define as a change in a species over
time.
 This first general definition was too vague and general.
It allowed for much debate.
 A current and less arguable definition of Evolution is:
Evolution is the change in gene frequency in a population over
time.
The theory of Evolution
 Charles Darwin is credited with the concept of
Evolution, but he was not the first person to
suggest that organisms change over time.
 Several scientists before Darwin alluded to the
concept of Evolution. They never explained how it
could happen.
 Darwin gets the credit for the theory of evolution
because he described or explained how evolution
could occur.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
 Evolution, or change over time, is the process by which modern
organisms have descended from ancient organisms. For now, we will
define evolution as descent with modification, a phrase Darwin used in
proposing that Earth’s many species are descendants of ancestral species
that were different from the present-day species. Evolution can also be
defined more narrowly as a change in the genetic composition of a
population from generation to generation

 A scientific theory is a well-supported testable explanation of phenomena

that have occurred in the natural world.
Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)

 Briefly studied medicine at Edinburgh.

 Studied for the clergy at Christ’s College,
Cambridge University.
 Interacted with some natural scientists
(John Henslow and Adam Sedgwick) at
Cambridge.
 Offered a position (in 1831) as the ship’s
naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle, which was
going on an expedition to chart the waters
of South America.
Voyage of Beagle

 Dates: February 12th, 1831

 Captain: Charles Darwin
 Ship: H.M.S. Beagle
 Destination: Voyage around the world.
 Findings: evidence to propose a revolutionary
hypothesis about how life changes over time
 During their voyage, they had stopped to a certain
place that kindled his interest about variation in
species and evolution. What is the name of that
place?

22
 The Voyage of the Beagle
 During his travels on the Beagle, Darwin collected
specimens of South American plants and animals
 He observed that fossils resembled living species
from the same region, and living species resembled
other species from nearby regions
 He experienced an earthquake in Chile and
observed the uplift of rocks
 Darwin was influenced by Lyell’s Principles of Geology
and thought that the earth was more than 6000 years
old
 His interest in geographic distribution of species was
kindled by a stop at the Galápagos Islands west of
South America
 He hypothesized that species from South America had
colonized the Galápagos and speciated on the islands
 Darwin’s Focus on Adaptation
 In reassessing his observations, Darwin perceived
adaptation to the environment and the origin of new
species as closely related processes
 From studies made years after Darwin’s voyage,
biologists have concluded that this is what happened
to the Galápagos finches
 During their stop at Galapagos, what did Darwin
realized?

9
The Galapagos Island
 The smallest, lowest islands were hot, dry, and nearly barren-
Hood Island-sparse vegetation
 The higher islands had greater rainfall and a different assortment
of plants and animals-Isabela- Island had rich vegetation.
 Darwin was fascinated in particular by the land tortoises and
marine iguanas in the Galápagos.
 Giant tortoises varied in predictable ways from one island to
another.
 The shape of a tortoise's shell could be used to identify which
island a particular tortoise inhabited.
 While on the Galapagos Islands, Darwin noticed that
plants and animals were like those on the mainland, but
not exactly alike. He realized that the species came
from the mainland and changed into a new species. He
came up with his theory of Evolution by Natural
Selection.
 Darwin perceived adaptation to the environment and the
origin of new species as closely related processes.
 Recent biologists have concluded that speciation is
indeed what happened to the Galápagos finches.
 What do you think are the animals Darwin had
found at Galapagos that further lit his idea about
evolution?

30
Animals found in the Galapagos
 Land Tortoises

 Darwin Finches

 Blue-Footed Booby

 Marine Iguanas
 VARIATION IN BILL SHAPE
AMONG GALAPAGOS FINCHES

 Closely related species that

occupy different ecological
settings tend to have different
characteristics.

 Populations that are physically

isolated tend to differ.
 In 1844, Darwin wrote an essay on natural selection as
the mechanism of descent with modification, but did not
introduce his theory publicly
 Natural selection is a process in which individuals with
favorable inherited traits are more likely to survive and
reproduce
 In June 1858, Darwin received a manuscript from Alfred
Russell Wallace, who had developed a theory of natural
selection similar to Darwin’s
 Darwin quickly finished The Origin of Species and
published it the next year
 The Origin of Species
 Darwin explained three broad observations:
 The unity of life
 The diversity of life
 The match between organisms and their environment
 Descent with Modification
 Darwin never used the word evolution in the first
edition of The Origin of Species
 The phrase descent with modification summarized
Darwin’s perception of the unity of life
 The phrase refers to the view that all organisms are
related through descent from an ancestor that lived
in the remote past
 Descent with Modification-Each living organism has
descended, with changes from other species over time
 Common Descent- were derived from common ancestors
It was mentioned that Darwin’s three broad
observations unity of life, diversity of life and the match
between organisms and their environment are well
characterized in the history of life. Based on Charles
Darwin, how does he view and represent the history of
life on his studies?

13
 In the Darwinian view, the history of life is like a tree with multiple
branching from a common trunk out to the tips of the youngest
twigs (Figure 22.7) representing life’s diversity. Darwin reasoned that
such a branching process, along with past extinction events,
could explain the large morphological gaps that sometimes exist
between related groups of organisms.
 Darwin’s theory meshed well with the hierarchy of Linnaeus
Figure 22.8
Hyracoidea
(Hyraxes)
Sirenia
(Manatees
and relatives)
†
Moeritherium

Barytherium
†

†
Deinotherium

Mammut
†

†
Platybelodon

†
Stegodon

†
Mammuthus

Elephas maximus
(Asia)
Loxodonta africana
(Africa)

Loxodonta cyclotis
(Africa)
60 34 24 5.5 2 104 0

Millions of years ago Years ago

The Journey Home

 Darwin Observed that characteristics of many

plants and animals vary greatly among the
islands

 Hypothesis: Separate species may have

arose from an original ancestor
Ideas that shaped Darwin’s Thinking
 James Hutton:
 1795 Theory of Geological
change
 Forces change earth’s
surface shape
 Changes are slow
 Earth much older than
thousands of years
Ideas that Shaped Darwin’s Thinking
 Charles Lyell
 Book: Principles of
Geography
 Geographical features can
be built up or torn down
 Darwin thought if earth
changed over time, what
about life?
Alfred Russel Wallace

 Born in 1823 in Wales and had received only six

years of formal education but was very well read
 He also went on an expedition to the Amazon
river basin and spent four years travelling,
collecting mapping and writing
 He went later to Malaysia where he spent 8
years involved in the same pursuits and had
developed his evolutionary theory which is
strikingly similar to Darwin.
Jean Baptiste de Lamarck

1. In the early 1800’s, Lamarck, a French

biologist, developed a theory of evolution
based on his belief in two biological processes.
 1 The use and disuse of organs. Lamarck
believed that organisms respond to changes in the
environment by developing new organs or modifying
old ones (acquired characteristics). Disuse results
in the disappearance of the organ.
 Inheritance of acquired traits. Lamarck believed
that these acquired characteristics were then passed
on to offspring.
Example of Lamarck’s theory
 Lamarck believed that at one time
giraffes had short necks and ate
grass. Then either grass became
scarce or other animals out-
competed the giraffes for the grass
so they started eating leaves off
trees. As lower leaves became
scarce, they stretched to reach
higher leaves. Their necks gradually
got longer and they passed the
longer necks to their offspring.
 Lamarck also thought that evolution happens because
organisms have an innate drive to become more complex
 Darwin rejected this idea, but he, too, thought that
variation was introduced into the evolutionary process in
part through inheritance of acquired characteristics.
 Today, however, our understanding of genetics refutes this
mechanism. Experiments show that traits acquired by
use during an individual’s life are not inherited in the
way proposed by Lamarck.
Explain why do you think that
traits acquired by use during an
individual’s life are not inherited
as opposed to what Lamarck
proposed?

33
Thomas Malthus: Population Growth

 Thomas Malthus-19th century English economist

 MANY MORE ORGANISMS ARE BORN THAN
CAN POSSIBLY SURVIVE. Malthus reasoned
that if the human population continued to grow
unchecked, sooner or later there would be
insufficient living space and food for everyone.
 Natural populations have a large capacity to
reproduce and if left unchecked they will increase at
a rapid rate.
When Darwin read Malthus' work, he realized that
this reasoning applied even more strongly to
plants and animals than it did to humans. Why?

25
Because humans produce far fewer offspring that most
other species do. And if all offspring of almost any
species survived for several generations, they would
overrun the world but obviously it did not happened.
Why?

15
The overwhelming majority of a species' offspring die.
Further, only few of those offspring that survive
succeed in reproducing. What causes the death of so
many individuals? What factor/s determine which ones
survive and reproduce and which do not?

7
Natural Selection & Artificial Selection

 Natural variation--differences among individuals of a

species

 Artificial selection- nature provides the variation

among different organisms, and humans select those
variations they find useful.
Evolution by Natural Selection

 The Struggle for Existence-members of each

species have to compete for food, shelter, other life
necessities

 Survival of the Fittest-Some individuals better

suited for the environment
How does the struggle for existence could possibly
contribute to evolution?

26
How about the concept of survival of the fittest? How
can it be a factor for species to either continue living
and to get extinct?

11
Natural Selection

 Over time, natural selection

results in changes in inherited
characteristics of a population.
These changes increase a
species fitness in its
environment
Darwin observed that:

 Individuals in a population have traits that vary

 Many of these traits are heritable (passed from parents to
offspring)
 More offspring are produced than survive

 Competition is inevitable

 Species generally suit their environment

 Darwin inferred that:

 Individuals that are best suited to their environment are more

likely to survive and reproduce
 Over time, more individuals in a population will have the
advantageous traits
 In other words, the natural environment “selects” for
beneficial traits
So how does the natural environment “selects” for
beneficial traits?

20
Darwin’s theory had 5 main points:

1. Variation exists among

individuals of a species.

For example, some gorillas

have longer arms than others,
some ladybugs have more
spots than others, etc.
Do we, humans have variations too? Cite an example/s.

5
Fig. 24-2

(a) Similarity between different species

(b) Diversity within a species

 2. All organisms compete for the same limited
resources. Such competition would lead to the
death of some individuals, while others would
survive.
3. Organisms produce more offspring than can
survive. The available resources cannot
support all these individuals. All species can
produce more offspring than the
environment can support, and many of
these offspring fail to survive and
reproduce
4. The environment selects organisms with
beneficial traits.
5. Organisms with traits best suited to the
environment will reproduce and pass on these traits
at a greater rate than organisms less suited to the
environment. This “survival of the fittest” is called
Natural Selection.
Therefore, what really is NATURAL SELECTION?

34
Natural Selection

 A mechanism for change in populations that occurs

when organisms with favorable variations for a
particular environment survive, reproduce, and pass on
these variations on to the next generation.
Conditions Necessary for Natural Selection

 Over production of offspring

 Variation of traits
 Individuals with favorable variations survive and pass
on variations to the next generation.
 Gradually offspring make-up a larger proportion of the
population
Figure 22.12

(a) A flower mantid in Malaysia (b) A leaf mantid in Borneo

 Natural Selection: A Summary
 Natural selection is a process in which individuals that have
certain heritable traits survive and reproduce at a higher
rate than other individuals because of those traits.
 Over time, natural selection can increase the match
between organisms and their environment.
 If an environment changes, or if individuals move to a new
environment, natural selection may result in adaptation to
these new conditions, sometimes giving rise to new
species.
Key Points
 Note that individuals do not evolve; populations
evolve over time
 Natural selection can only increase or decrease
heritable traits that vary in a population
 Adaptations vary with different environments