EVOLUTIONARY

BIOLOGY
BY: JERAMIE S. ERPELO
“ NOTHING IN BIOLOGY MAKES SENSE EXCEPT IN THE LIGHT
OF EVOLUTION”

- THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY
CHAPTER 1: WHAT EVOLUTION IS
AND WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW

EVOLUTION
is a change through time.

Biological Evolution
is a changes in the frequencies of different genes –
throughout an entire species, or within a single population
of that species, from generation to generation.
Gene

 DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is what gets passed from

parents to offspring.
 DNA is a long molecule made up of a string of four sub-
units; that the order of these letters, commonly called
the DNA sequence, stores genetic information.
 Developed the chemical techniques that allow
researchers to determine the exact sequence of an
organism’s DNA
 Gene Frequency

how often it appears in a population.

Although the changes in gene frequency happens gradually through time, the
rate of evolution isn’t constant. Gene frequencies can remain constant for a
long periods of time and then change in response to changes in the
environment.
The Timescales of Evolution

Microevolution
 refers to the results of the evolutionary process over short time scales
and small changes
Macroevolution
 refers to the results of the evolutionary process typically among
species over long periods. It also refers to a larger changes where
researchers can observe when evolution has been going on for a
longer time and involves processes such as extinction.
Speciation is the process whereby one species give rise to two.
Gene Extremes: Mutation and Extinction

Genes can go extremes. At one extreme, it is the disappearing gene.

EXTINCT
At the other extreme, new genes can appear.
MUTATION
 Effects of Mutation

 They can have no effect at all.

 They can result in a change that’s harmful to the organism.

 They can result in a change that’s advantageous to the organism.

 Darwin and His Big Ideas

- a would-be physician and theologian.

- he is fascinated with natural history and
geography that led him to accept a position as
naturalist of the HMS Beagle Expedition.
HMS Beagle Expedition
- is a ship bound to South America with the
purpose of mapping the area and sending
plant, animal and fossil specimens back to
England from 1831-1836. Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
 Several things that led Darwin to speculate about the
changes that might occur in species over time;

 The diversity of life he observed on his voyage.

 The geographical patterns whereby different yet obviously related species

were found in close proximity to one another.

 And, the fossils he collected that made it clear present-day species weren’t
the ones that had been present in the past.
 Natural Selection by Darwin

One of Darwin’s big ideas was what he called natural selection, the
mechanism that he proposed to explain what he called “descent with
modification.”

Artificial Selection – man is the selecting agent.

Natural Selection – environment is the selecting agent.

How “fitness” fits in with natural selection

Fitness
how well an organism reproduce.

In evolutionary sense, fitness is purely a measure of the differential

reproductive success among different individuals.
 Understanding adaptive characters

Some evolutionary changes are adaptive.

- it means that a character has changed as a result of natural selection in

a way that makes that character better suited to perform it’s function.
 The Study of Evolution, Post- Darwin

Some key points that Darwin failed to address;

 Many DNA mutations are selectively neutral.
 Chance can be important factor contributing to the change in gene
frequencies through time.
 Not all the characteristics of any particular organism are positively
correlated with fitness.
 The environment affects fitness.
 Applying Evolution Today

 Conservation
 Agriculture
 Advancements in breeding.
 Crop variation.
 Crop history
 Medicine
CHAPTER 2: THE SCIENCE – PAST AND
PRESENT OF EVOLUTION

Evolution: A Fact and A Theory

It’s a fact.
refers to the things scientists can see and measure.

It’s a theory.
refers to the intellectual framework science has developed to explain the
underlying processes that account for those facts.
How to think like a scientist: The Language of
Science

 Theory in Scientific terms

 A hypothesis that has overwhelming support – in essence, an idea that’s been
proved.

 Theory in Layman’s term

 Best guess.
Science’s three most important words.

 Fact – something you can observe or measure.

 Hypothesis – a working idea or set of ideas resulting from observations

and measurements. It serves as a guide to future investigation. It gives
scientists suggestions about what facts they should try to collect next.

 Theory – a conceptual framework, tested repeatedly but not rejected, that

explains the facts, observation and measurements, and makes accurate
predictions of how the system will behave in the future.
 Scientific Investigation

1. Start with some observations about the natural world.

2. Formulate a hypothesis.
3. Gather additional data to test this hypothesis.
4. As your data accumulates, it either supports your hypothesis, or it
forces you to revise or abandon the hypothesis.
5. At the point where an overwhelming amount of information starts to
accumulate in support of the hypothesis, the hypothesis is elevated to
a theory.
 The hypothesis must get tested and tested to the best of everyone’s ability
before it arrives in the exalted land of theory. And even a theory is only one
good experiment away from being rejected, which is one of the fundamental
components of the scientific method: that the ideas scientists come up with
must be falsifiable. That is, scientists must be able to imagine some set of
results that would cause them to reject the theory; then they must see that
over and over again, they never get the expected results
 The Evidence of Evolution

 Knowledge about DNA and genetics.

 Experimental evidence.

 Measurement of the rates of change.

 The Scientific Foundation of Evolution by
Natural Selection

 Gradualism: Changes over time.

 The age of the Earth.
 The fossil record.
 Biogeographic patterns, or location.
 Natural selection and speciation.
 Chapter 3: Getting into Your Genes: (Very)
Basic Genetics

What is genetics?
Genetics is the science of investigating the relationship between parental
and offspring characteristics.
- study of heredity.