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Looking back in time
The rocks at the top of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, are
250 million years old. Those at the bottom are 2 billion
years old.

Why did the

rocks form in
layers?

Why do so
many people
want a closer
look at them?

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What are fossils?
The rocks are formed from sediments and many contain
fossils.

Fossils are the preserved

remains, impressions or
traces of animals, plants
and other organisms that
lived millions of years ago.

Some fossils contain the mineralized remains of the organism.

In other cases, the remains have been completely dissolved
and what is left is an impression, which may later fill with
minerals to produce a cast of the organism.

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Fossilization

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A rare event
Fossilization is a rare event. Different types of fossil form
under different conditions and environments.

mud amber ice and frozen soil

Fossilized remains only form in the
absence of microbes, which need
food, oxygen, water and warmth.
What type of fossil forms whether
there are microbes present or not?
ash/mud
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Layers of evidence

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What does the fossil record show?
The history of life on Earth as shown by fossils is called the
fossil record.
Although there are gaps in
the fossil record, it helps to
tell the evolutionary story of
past and present-day
organisms. It can show
how the changes in an
organism were linked to
changes in its habitat.

The fossil record can also show how different species

evolved from common ancestors.

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Gradual changes in fossil records

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Lamarcks theory of evolution
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) was a French botanist
who believed that species evolved because they inherited
traits acquired through the over or under-use of body parts.

How would this theory explain

a giraffes long neck?
The short-necked ancestors of
modern giraffes needed to reach the
leaves on tall trees when food was
scarce.
Over their lifetimes these
giraffes stretched their necks; a
trait which was then passed on
to their offspring.

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Darwins theory of evolution
The British naturalist Charles Darwin
(18091882) later suggested a more
persuasive argument for evolution.

Darwin proposed that evolution took

place through natural and sexual
selection.

Darwin developed his theory of

evolution after noticing close similarities
between certain fossils and the
adaptations of modern day animals he
saw during his round-the-world voyage
on the HMS Beagle.

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Who was Charles Darwin?

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Natural selection

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How the giraffe got its neck
How does Darwins theory explain a giraffes long neck?

Due to natural variation, the ancestors of modern

giraffes would have had necks of different length.

Giraffes with longer necks would have been able

to reach more food than those with shorter necks.

As a result, the long-necked giraffes were

more likely to be healthy and live to produce
more high-quality offspring.

This, in turn, would increase the chances of

their long-necked characteristic (an adaptive
trait) being passed on to future generations.

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Galpagos finches
In the Galpagos, Darwin noticed that different islands had
different types of finches, with different types of beak.

Some finches had strong and claw-like

beaks, suitable for crushing seeds.

Other finches had thin and delicate

beaks, suitable for picking insects from
holes in the ground.
Darwin thought all the finches could have evolved from one
type of finch that came from the mainland.
On different islands, where there would be competition for
food, finches with slightly different beaks would have been
able to eat other foods. They would have survived and passed
on their genes.
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What happens when habitats change?
Adaptive evolution ensures that individuals within a species
have traits allowing them to survive and reproduce in their
habitat.

If the habitat changes,

however, successful traits can
become a disadvantage.

For example, if global warming caused the

Arctic snow to melt, brown rabbits may be better camouflaged
and therefore more likely to survive than white rabbits.

Individuals that fail to reproduce, compete effectively for food

or survive against new predators will eventually die out. If the
last individual of a species dies, the species is extinct.

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Dead as a dodo
Why did the dodo become extinct?

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Why did the dodo become extinct?
The dodo was a large flightless bird
that lived on the island of Mauritius.
It nested on the ground in forests,
producing one egg at a time.

When human settlers arrived on the

island in the mid-1600s, they brought
animals such as rats and dogs to the
island, which ate the dodos eggs.

The settlers chopped down the forests in which the dodos

lived, and may have even hunted the dodo for food.

The dodo became extinct sometime in the late 1600s.

What traits might have helped the dodo to survive longer?

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Controversial research
Darwin knew that in religious
Victorian society his findings
would be controversial and
blasphemous. He was unwilling
to publish and risk his reputation.

However, when Darwin learned

that another British naturalist,
Alfred Russel Wallace, had
proposed an almost identical
theory of natural selection, he
published his findings.

Luckily, a handful of influential scientists were convinced by

Darwin's work and spoke out in public to promote his ideas.

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Could Darwin explain everything?
Darwin made extensive use of
specimens and fossil evidence to
explain his theory of evolution,
but because DNA and
genes had not yet been
discovered, he was unable
to explain why traits varied within
individuals or how they were inherited.

Victorian scientists found it difficult to test Darwins

theory. For his theory to work, the Earth needed to be
millions of years old, but its age was not known at that time.

In addition, little was known about the process of fossilization

or how to explain gaps in the fossil record.

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New lines of evidence
DNA from different organisms can be compared. The fewer
differences, the less time since they shared a common
ancestor.

98% of a human and a

chimpanzees genes are
the same. What does this
tell you about their
evolution?

It is a relatively short time since they both

evolved from earlier mammals.

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Evolution or design?
Some people reject evolution and natural selection in favour
of alternative explanations such as intelligent design (ID).

According to ID, organisms are too complex to have arisen

by evolution alone, and their development must have been
guided by a higher intelligence at some point.

Supporters of ID claim it is a valid theory based on scientific

evidence, but critics say it is simply a disguised version of
creationism.

What do you think about teaching intelligent design in

a science class?

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Theories about the dawn of life
There are many theories of how life first appeared on Earth,
but no-one is sure which one is correct. This is because direct
evidence from 4 billion years ago is scarce as a result of
constant transformation of the Earths surface.

There are three general types of theory:

Theory Summary
prebiotic proteins developed from a cold broth
broth of molecules
hydrothermal metabolites formed in hot, high-pressure,
low-oxygen environments
extra-terrestrial life arrived on Earth on meteorites

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True or false?

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Evolution all around us
Darwin said: It is not the strongest of the species that
survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most
responsive to change.

The environment today

is changing rapidly as
a result of habitat
destruction, pollution
and the artificial
control of populations.

How is environmental change affecting the evolution of

animals, plants and microbes?

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Peppered moths
Peppered moths rest on tree trunks
during the day. Some are light
coloured and others are dark.
When cities were very polluted in the
19th century the number of
previously rare dark coloured moths
increased, as they were better
camouflaged against predators on
soot-stained trees.
Cities are cleaner now. What
difference has this made?
The number of light coloured moths
is increasing.

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What are superbugs?
Some species of bacteria can double in
number every 20 minutes. Mutations that
offer competitive advantages spread
rapidly through the population as a result.

A common type of mutation amongst bacteria

is to develop resistance to an antibiotic.
If bacteria become resistant to several
antibiotics, they are known as superbugs.

Infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria are very

difficult to treat, especially in patients with weakened immune
systems. This is because the range of drugs that can kill the
bacteria is so limited.

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The evolution of superbugs?

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What is MRSA?
MRSA is Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus a
bacterium that is resistant to
several antibiotics.

About 30% of the population

carry MRSA without any
symptoms. In hospital patients,
however, it can cause
pneumonia, blood poisoning
and even death.

The antibiotic vancomycin is used to treat MRSA infection,

but resistance to this has evolved, creating VRSA.

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What is the risk from bird flu?
Since 1997, the H5N1 avian influenza, or bird flu, virus has
been infecting birds across Asia and Europe.
There are different strains
of bird flu some are more
pathogenic (disease-
causing) than others. Most
pose little risk to humans.
The concern is that the virus
may mutate into a pathogenic
strain that can be transmitted
between humans.
Only a small number of people have died from bird flu, and
these were people in close contact with domestic poultry.

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 Glossary

evolution The development of new species as a result of

natural selection.
extinction The complete disappearance of a species due
to changes in its environment that reduce its ability to survive
and reproduce.
fossil The preserved remains, impressions or traces of an
organism that lived millions of years ago.
natural selection The process where individuals that
are well adapted to their environment survive and reproduce
at the expense of less well-adapted individuals.
trait A distinguishing and inheritable characteristic of an
organism.
variation The natural differences between individual
members of a species.

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Anagrams

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Summary

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The mechanism of natural selection

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Multiple-choice quiz

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