-evolution is the process of genetic change in a population over time -his main observations were: the rodents from South America were structurally similar but significantly different from rodents from other continents the fossils of extinct animals had many similarities to some of the living, modern species finches and other animals observed in the Galapagos closely resembled the animals he had observed on the west coast of South America the species in the Galapagos varied slightly between islands Darwin, Wallace, and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection -Russel Wallace, another English naturalist, reached conclusions that were similar to Darwins -they accepted that populations changed as time passed, but were still unsure of how they change -an economist, Thomas Malthus, proposed that populations produced far more offspring than their environment could supportthen the populations would eventually be reduced due to starvation or disease -this led Darwin to develop his idea of the survival of the fittestthe idea that the organisms that are the fittest leave the most offspring, so those organisms win the struggle for survival -he also proposed that all life descended from some unknown organism and as descendants of this organism spread out over different habitats, they developed adaptations that helped them better survive in their local environment -his ideas are as summarized as: Organisms produce more offspring than can survive. Therefore, they compete for limited resources individuals of a population vary extensively, and much of this variation is heritable individuals that are better suited to local conditions survive to produce more offspring processes for change are slow and gradual -Darwin did not use the word evolution; instead, he called it descent with modification -he felt that using the word evolution implied progress and natural selection does not demonstrate progress; it has no set direction
Evidence from Biogeography -biogeography is the study of the past and present geographical distribution of organisms -Darwin and Wallaces observations were heavily based on biogeography -they have observed that: geographically close environments are more likely to be populated by related species than locations that are far
apart but environmentally similar animals found on islands often closely resemble animals found on the closest continentthis suggests that the island animals have evolved from mainland migrants and the populations would change by becoming adapted to the conditions of their new environment
fossils of the same species can be found on the coastline of neighbouring continentsevidence of the supercontinent, Pangea Evidence from Anatomy -despite the difference functions of vertebrate forelimbs (flying, swimming, etc), all vertebrate forelimbs contain the same set of bones -this is because the basic vertebrate forelimb originated with a common ancestor -homologous structures are structures that have similar structural elements and origin but may have different functions (human arm, bat wing, etc) -the structures all have similar components, such as: the number of bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons and blood vessels -how these components are arranged can be suited for different functions -analogous structures are body parts of organisms that perform similar functions but do not have a common evolutionary origin -they evolve in species of different origin that live in similar ecological units (e.g. bird wings vs. insect wings) Evidence from Embryology -embryology is the study of early, pre-birth stages of an organisms development -embryos of different organisms exhibit similar stages of embryonic development -for example, all vertebrate embryos have paired pouchesin fish, the pouches develop into gills whereas in humans, the pouches develop into the ears and throat -the similarities between embryos in related groups (such as vertebrates) point to a common ancestral origin Evidence from DNA -scientists can determine how closely related two organisms are by comparing their DNA -if two species have similar patterns in their DNA, this indicates that these DNA sequences must have been inherited from a common ancestor -by studying gene sequences, scientists have determined that dogs are related to bears and whales and dolphins are related to hoofed animals such as cows and deer